Go Vote!

I voted today.  It wasn't much of a ballot this primary season.  A couple of candidates who are going to win no matter what and some judges for family court, but I went to the polls, and I voted.

I remember when I was a kid, my dad was a precinct captain.  I didn't really know what that was, but it sounded important, and every election day, he would take off work, which he NEVER did, and leave the house at the crack of dawn and head up to Stonestreet Elementary School with a box of donuts in each hand to watch the polls.

After school, Mom would stop by to vote, and we would get to go into the booth with her and stand there while she pulled the curtain shut.  It always reminded me of the Wizard of Oz the way it opened and closed, and there WAS something magical about pulling down the lever and having your voice heard.

At the end of the night, Dad would come home with a big piece of paper in hand, and he would spread it out on the kitchen table and note the final count of votes for each candidate.  Then he would call the district headquarters and report on the results.  I always found it exciting when "our guy," whoever it was, "won" our precinct.  It felt like a good omen to me.  Then we would sit down in front of the TV and watch the returns.  Invariably, The Wizard of Oz was actually on one of the channels, and every so often, it would get interrupted for an election update.  Still to this day, I am riveted to the TV every election night, memories of years gone by fresh in my mind.

Today, my son is eligible to vote in his first election.  He is not interested at all.  He is disillusioned with our country and how little voice we "the people" have anymore, and he doesn't see the point in voting because it doesn't really matter.  "Politicians don't care.  They are going to get into office and do whatever they want anyway.  Why bother?"

Why bother?  I thought about it.  I have never missed a chance to vote since the very first time I was eligible to vote.  I've voted in the pouring down rain.  In the cold.  When I've been sick.  With new babies on my hip.  But why?

I vote because I can.  I vote because some places in this world there are people who do not have the right to vote, and if someone told me I no longer had that right, I would be up in arms.  I vote because less than 100 years ago, women were not allowed to, and many women went to jail in order to have their voices heard.  I vote because men and women have died defending our freedoms, and my vote honors their sacrifice.  I vote because my ancestors came to this country to escape tyranny and intolerance, and my vote honors their choice to become American citizens.  I vote because I refuse to believe it doesn't matter any more.  I vote because I believe when people let apathy keep them from the polls, democracy dies a little bit at a time.  I vote because I am lucky enough to live in the United States of America, and while our system is not perfect, it is our system, and I want my voice, however small, to be heard.

I voted today.  Did you?