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Opinions are fun. My friends tell me I am someone with lots of opinions and that's fine since I don't get mad at others when they disagree with me. In this same spirit I am interested in hearing yours views as long as you are able to share your views without boiling over. I look forward to hearing from you. I tend to write in the form of short essays most of the time, but contributions do not need to be in this same format or size. Some of the content here will date itself pretty quickly, other content may be virtually timeless, this is for the reader to judge.

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Vote or Shut up!                                                                                    

Posted at: Oct/29/2010 : Posted by: mel

Related Category: Politics & Gov,

We are on the verge of the 2010 mid-term elections and of course, the rhetoric is just about as nasty has it has ever been. Of equal note is that this election is inspiring a great deal of water cool discussion and in some cases even heated debate. I have never backed away from a good political discuss, nor do I lack for opinions so I have found myself in the middle of a few of these. I don’t mind disagreeing with someone that is part of what makes life interesting. Recently I asked one of my equally opinionated associates how they voted during the last election, and to my shock they said they had not.

Hearing that this person had not voted in the previous election left me quite stunned though I tend to recover quickly whereby I asked them if they are voting this time? To my further dismay I found they not only don’t plan to vote, but that they are not even registered to vote. At this point I decided to end the debate because they were not qualified to participate. Let me explain.

The process of voting is a “civil right” in the United States. Sometimes call “the franchise” it is each citizens chance to have a say in our democratic process. I know, sometimes the choices are so bleak you feel like you are select between ugly and unintelligible, not much of a choice. Despite how poor the choices are, your participation is desperately needed. This participation goes beyond pulling the lever at the polling station, if you don’t vote…I don’t think you have earned a place at the table to discuss or debate the outcome. Much like “Pascal’s Wager” (look it up) I feel there are four possibilities here.

First: If the issue you voted for is approved and things go well, you can easily point to how right you were on the issue. You get to brag about your vote and that you were a part of making that policy happen along with a positive change.

Second: If the issue you voted for is approved and over the long you see that things turned out poorly despite your good intentions. In this bleak situation you still get to attest to the fact that you were wrong, you know better now and you’ll vote differently next time in an effort to fix this mess.

Third: In spite of your best efforts at directing your friends on how they should have voted your agenda failed to pass. More importantly, things are now getting worse instead of better. In this scenario you get to say “see, I told you so”. I know, there is very little satisfaction here except to point out that maybe they will listen to you more next time.

Fourth: Again, in spite of your best efforts at encouraging your friends on a particular issue you agenda failed in the election. Uniquely, in this case time has shown that despite how you though things should go, you have been proven wrong and things are improving. In this situation you stand before your friends raising a drink and pointing out that they were right and you were wrong. Life is full of learning opportunities and this is one.

In all of the above situations, you exercised your franchise right and voted. Having participated in the process you have earned the right to participate in all the discussions and debates about the outcome. For the individuals who want to argue about the candidates, their agendas and the various propositions but have not voted, for me they are whiners! When you see a movie in the theatre there is often a discussion about “I would have ended it this way or that way”, etc. Ultimately thought we have no control and the movie is the way that it is. Our political system is quite different thought. We not only have a stake in the outcome, we have a say in creating that outcome, but only if you vote. By logical inference if you did not vote, shut up about the outcome.

On the day after my 18th birthday I got called to go to the office of my high school. Walking from class to the office I was wondering what kind of trouble I was in. On arriving at the office I was met by my father whose presence left me even more worried about what trouble I was now in. To my surprise he took me out for a very pleasant lunch. At the conclusion of our lunch he took me to the public library where he stood in line with me and ensured that I registered to vote. When confronted with the question of selecting party affiliation he left that up to me, and to be truthful I flipped a coin. On leaving the library a short while later my father explained to me that voting is the most important civil right I have as an American citizen. If I vote I am attempting to have a voice in my destiny and the destiny of my government, local, regional, state and national. If I fail to vote he emphasized that I will be stating by my non-vote that I don’t care about my future or my countries. He continued by pointing out that if I don’t care enough to vote, I would obviously not care to, or have earned the right to participate in the debate as well.

My father’s words stuck. Whether in the military and voting absentee ballot or registering locally I don’t believe I have missed an election in the 35 years since first registering. Whether my votes were right or wrong are really inconsequential in the grand scheme of history. I voted because I learned that it is part of having my voice and earning my place at the debating table. If I have not convinced you to vote, I hope I have at least convinced you to shut up if you are not voting. Remember, voting is arguably your most important civil right. If you do not vote you are clearly saying you don’t care. If you do not vote you are clearly saying you don’t care and have no legitimate reason to be talking about candidates or political agenda.

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