A Short PSA On The Election
Oct. 15th, 2008 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masterofmidgetsI voted today - that is, I mailed my New Mexico absentee ballot today. When the votes are counted on Nov 4, mine will be one of them.
This feels monumental to me. This is the first election I've been able to vote in; a lot of my friends voted in the midterm elections in 2006, but I was still 17 then, so I was stuck in the sidelines. It was almost as bad as the 2004 election - I was only 14, but it was incredibly frustrating to see the direction the country was heading and not be able to do anything about it. But this year, I can vote. This year, the country thinks I'm old enough that my opinion /matters/. And it's an amazing election to come of age for - an election that I believe is literally going to decide the direction our country goes in for the next five-ten years, maybe even longer. Twenty years ago, a black man in office would have been unthinkable, but today Barack Obama was leading in every major poll. The /Republican/ party is backing a female vice president.
My mom taught me that you only have the right to complain about what your country does if you express your opinion that it should do otherwise by voting. Democracy doesn't work if it only goes one direction; we have responsibilities too, and one of the most important is to vote.
I'm not going to tell you who to vote for: I know why I voted for Barack Obama today, and I assume if you like him, or McCain, or Cynthia McKinney, you know why you want to vote for them. But whoever you want to vote for, /do it/. Get out to the polls, or mail your ballot, or whatever.
We have the chance to really change this country, but that's not going to happen if we don't get out there and make ourselves heard.
This feels monumental to me. This is the first election I've been able to vote in; a lot of my friends voted in the midterm elections in 2006, but I was still 17 then, so I was stuck in the sidelines. It was almost as bad as the 2004 election - I was only 14, but it was incredibly frustrating to see the direction the country was heading and not be able to do anything about it. But this year, I can vote. This year, the country thinks I'm old enough that my opinion /matters/. And it's an amazing election to come of age for - an election that I believe is literally going to decide the direction our country goes in for the next five-ten years, maybe even longer. Twenty years ago, a black man in office would have been unthinkable, but today Barack Obama was leading in every major poll. The /Republican/ party is backing a female vice president.
My mom taught me that you only have the right to complain about what your country does if you express your opinion that it should do otherwise by voting. Democracy doesn't work if it only goes one direction; we have responsibilities too, and one of the most important is to vote.
I'm not going to tell you who to vote for: I know why I voted for Barack Obama today, and I assume if you like him, or McCain, or Cynthia McKinney, you know why you want to vote for them. But whoever you want to vote for, /do it/. Get out to the polls, or mail your ballot, or whatever.
We have the chance to really change this country, but that's not going to happen if we don't get out there and make ourselves heard.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-16 04:13 am (UTC)The only bad thing is that I'm not in high school any more, so no extra credit points for voting. D:
no subject
Date: 2008-10-16 04:17 am (UTC)It's very cool to have a say.