WHAT, ME VOTE?
This may not seem like it, but this is a genuine attempt to communicate with those of you who have no desire to vote. You know who you are. You know that a large percentage of you are regular readers of this publication. Chances are you don’t talk about it much to others. Truth is you don’t care. Why should you? They don’t care about you, now, do they? I mean, they say they do, just to get that vote out of you. Once they’re in, though, it’s always another story, isn’t it?
People are tired of well-groomed officials with ultra-bright smiles lying to their faces. They’re tired of feeling like their opinion doesn’t matter. Like their dreams don’t matter. I get it, I do. Why bother throwing your vote away? I understand the idea of being fed up with the powers-that-be. My goal is not to tell any of you what to do with your vote. My goal has more to do with getting you to think about the sacrifices that were made in order for you to have the right to vote, and honoring those sacrifices by honoring your own voice.
Look, I’m not talking to you from a position of power. My family didn’t have lots of money. My father was a cement mason, my mother a housewife. My father belonged to a union — of course, they went on strike. I remember how much Dad hated being on unemployment, and how much stress there was between my parents. Through those tough times, though, they voted. It wasn’t questioned; it was something you did. Hell, I’ve been on unemployment, done my share of manual labor, been homeless, slept in shelters, in doorways, am considered disabled at this time, and am currently living off GA (General Assistance) and food stamps. There was no way I planned that for myself.
I went to college. I had goals and dreams, and even as I watched my dreams fade away, and I was forced to deal with my day-to-day survival needs, I continued to vote. Why? Because, even though in many cases I was in uncivilized surroundings, voting made me feel more civilized. Voting forced me to pay more attention to where politicians stood on the issues, and how that affected my rights as a poor person. In order to understand the issues better, I had to read newspapers more often. I had to talk to strangers, and ask questions, which brought me out of my shell of loneliness, and helped to remove feelings of powerlessness. This is something that many poor people feel, and something that many powerful people want poor people to feel, so believe me when I say to you that I get it so much, I’m tired of getting it! I understand that it’s tough to change folk’s minds about voting. They don’t see me living in a solid-gold mansion with hot-andcold Cadillacs running out of it, so why listen to me? Fair enough. Maybe it comes down to what you believe in. So, do you believe in right and wrong? Do you believe in dividing up the pizza evenly, or in taking as many slices as you can get away with, or in beating up on someone and taking the whole pie? See, to me, voting is about sharing slices of pizza. Voting, really, is civilization itself.
Let’s go back to caveman days. Was there voting then? Nope — no ballots, no VOTE FOR TROG campaigns, no chads, no spin doctors. Just your basic knuckle-draggin’, head-clubbin’ bunch of Neanderthals. Their idea of voting was the toughest guy is in charge. If you didn’t like it, you either shut your mouth or challenged the head caveperson to a fight, and either you won, and were in charge, or lost, and were dead. There was another, sneakier option, which was to get a bunch of tribe members together to gang up on the head cavedude. This is where politics actually started — you take care of this problem for me, and I’ll make sure you get more food, or can sit closest to the fire, or whatever. As time went on, and tribes got larger, voting was brought in as a way of keeping violence down to a minimum, and of making tribal members feel that their voices were being heard.
What I’m getting at is, if you’re not voting, your voice isn’t being heard. I was always told, “If you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain.” So, when I vote, I feel that I have the right to speak to those that I’ve voted for about issues that concern me. Voting, in and of itself, gives me that right.
By voting, you understand more about how federal, state and city governments are run. The more you understand about the process, the more you can affect positive change. Changes brought forward by the process of democracy are based on listening to all sides and arriving at fair and civilized decisions. In my mind, voting is better than not voting.
Now, am I telling you who to vote for, or how to vote? No. If you don’t like who’s running, run yourself, or find someone who will. If you don’t like the platforms, or issues of the major parties, join another one, or start another one. I was raised Democrat, but since I’ve watched them abandon union workers and poor people — their base — my vote has become more independent. I’m looking for that rarest of candidates — an honest, decent citizen who actually gives a damn about building a better future for all of us.
Why do I feel crazy when I say that? Isn’t that what all of us want? And if that’s what all of us want, then why isn’t that the way it is? ”
Randall