Your Vote Matters...

Growing up, I can't tell you how many times I was told:

howwonderfulitistoliveinademocracyand

howIneedtoremembertovoteand

thatitisapriveledgethatIshouldn'ttakeforgrantedand

blahblahblahyaddayaddayadda...



As it turns out, it is all true...



It is not that I don't believe in our democratic process - I do. I think it is more that in the past I never felt connected to it. That I never really believed that what I thought would make any kind of a difference one way or the other. That no matter what box I checked on my ballot, that my one vote didn't really count for anything - that my one vote wasn't going to tip the scales either way. In some ways I still hold on to those feelings. Let's face it - everything seems so incredibly B I G right now, and my vote seems so incredibly small, so why even vote at all? Why even care about any of it?



I could go the other way: embracing a person or philosophy based on emotion, popularity and hype, blindly staking my claim on a platform that, in reality, doesn't exist and not really caring about that at all - isn't it enough that I'm actually taking a stand on something? Why should I understand it all? I REALLY like the guy! Who cares what they are saying or if it even makes sense? They said it so it MUST be the truth, because I really REALLY like them! Everything that they say sounds so pretty, so eloquent and so logical, its gotta be the truth! They would never lie to ME.......right?



Knowing people on both ends of the spectrum and many people who are in between, I feel I need to say:



To you who are not voting because you don't think it will matter one way or the other: wake up and pay attention to what is going on around you!



To you who are closing your eyes and ears so tight so you can't see the reality of things: jump down from that bandwagon you are on and listen up!



You matter. Your vote matters. Your very own personal opinions and feelings matter. Regardless of what the media says and regardless of how you think the final vote will swing, it is not over until it is over.



So for these next few days, step away from your TV and turn off your radio. Open up your Voters' Pamphlet (you know - the one you got in the mail earlier in the month and set somewhere on your kitchen counter under the huge pile of candidates' flyers) and READ IT. Study it. Learn what the issues are REALLY about, not what the media tells you they are about. If you can't find yours, get to the Post Office and pick one up. Look up the candidates on the internet - no, not on their respecitve websites, but on an unbiased, fact-based site (I like http://www.vote-smart.org/). Check out their voting records and look up what they were actually voting on.



Just care enough about your future to look it up for yourself. Don't settle for less - you deserve to know what is really going on.



I don't care which way you lean or who you want to win. Just know that you DO matter, and your vote DOES count, so make sure you know what you are really voting for.

And VOTE.

.