by Kim Rosenberg
Some people don’t vote. They don’t vote because they don’t like the choices. Coke or Pepsi isn’t much of a choice, I agree. Both rot your teeth and are bad for your health but if you’re a fan of either you’ll stick to it and if you’re a fan of neither you might just sit this election out.
But that’s a choice. If you don’t vote than you are actually voting for the war in Iran, the tariffs, the ICE raids and murders, the inflation, the corruption, the loss of our democracy. If you don’t like the choices we have on the ballot, you could be involved in changing the choices. Think it takes too long to change things? I mean even changing a city ordinance takes a long time let alone a political system that favors the rich and poops on the rest.
Do you feel like you don’t have the time to do anything that leaves the world a little better than it is right now? Time passes regardless of what we’re doing. And here’s a spoiler—eventually we’re all going to die. Is it better to sit on our hands and let life go by never doing the things that are hard but necessary? As Mary Oliver wrote in her poem The Summer’s Day, ‘what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’
Think it’s somebody else’s jam? Someone else’s responsibility to work for change? Who is that someone you’re waiting for? Nobody’s coming to save us. There is no cavalry. Nobody’s going to rescue us from our inaction. We are who we’ve been waiting for.
Do you think that if you and yours are doing fine there’s no reason to vote? Guess what? What hurts one of us, hurts all of us. We are connected whether we like it or not. That’s the plain truth of it. And if we don’t want to leave a dumpster fire for the kids coming up, we must realize that we have a collective responsibility to each other before it’s too late.
I read a recent interview with comedian Chris Rock. When asked about the political dissatisfaction so many people are expressing these days Rock said, “…People have the America they want. If they want to change it, we’ll see.” He’s right.
Our political choices reflect what we will tolerate in our society, who and what we value and what we vote for. If we don’t vote at all because we don’t like what and who is on the ballot, we’re voting for more of the same. More hate. More division. More money for the rich. Nothing for the rest.
If we really love our country, not just in theory but in practice, we will vote. If we really believe in the principles of Democracy, we will vote. If we really believe in the Constitution, we will vote. If we really value the lives of those who fought and died for our country, we will vote.
And if we want to change the America we have right now into the America we say we want, we will vote.
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