Why Vote?

The cynics say, “Why vote?  The people we elect sell out to the special interests and fat cat lobbies as soon as they get to Washington, D.C. (or the state capitol) anyway.”  Conspiracy theories abound about who really runs things, and it is never the people.  The greedy say, “Who cares?  As long as I get mine, the country can rot for all I care.”  Sadly, the cynics and the self-serving have been given plenty of reasons to feel the way they do.

It seems that every election year we have to answer the same old question … often with the same old answers.  Does that, however, make the answers any less valid.  I don’t think so!

People in other countries have risked their lives to vote.  There are many people in the world who would die for the right to vote in a free and fair election.  American women fought long and hard for the right to vote.  They prevailed when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed on August 18, 1920.  Women in some countries are still not allowed to vote.

I am a veteran.  I swore to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  In effect, I swore to give my life to preserve the right of American citizens to vote.  Better men and women than I have given their lives for your right to vote.

Although our elected leaders sometimes lose sight of their duty, We the People must not.  All other reasons are valid and important, but if they all were to disappear, this would remain:  We vote because it is our duty.  A constitutional right not used is a right that is forfeited.

Duty

I slept and dreamed that life was beauty:

I woke and found that life was Duty:

Was then thy dream a shadowy lie?

Toil on, sad heart, courageously,

And thou shalt find thy dream to be

A noonday light and truth to thee. (1)

Ellen S. Hooper

(1812-1848)

Quaint. Old fashioned.  Perhaps, but it still rings as true today as the Liberty Bell once did before it cracked for joy.


(1)  MacKinzie, Richard, editor. The New Home Book of Best Loved Poems. Doubleday & Company, 1946.