Tuesday, September 14, 2010

V - O - T - E

A single droplet of water will most likely go unnoticed by all.  But when millions of droplets fall at the same time and in the same place you could easily have a dangerous flood on your hands.
I just did something that in and of itself seems quite fruitless and as insignificant as a droplet of water, I voted.
I did so for three reasons;
One: It's an honor to be able to vote;
Two: It's the duty of every citizen to be involved in elections to decide who will be in our government;
Scan This New York!
Three: New York just instituted a new method of voting that involves paper ballots and scanning machines to count them.
I expected to have a little trouble since it is something new but found the experience to be pleasant and quick and hopefully accurate.  I now believe it will work fine come the regular election in November.
The voting place, a local school with regular classes still in session was basically empty with workers outnumbering voters, well 30 to 2 (my wife voted with me.)
I guess that is understandable since today's voting was only a primary election but still I wish there had been a larger turn out.
Given the passion that has been seen on television and cable shows and the partisan funded rallies across the nation it was a shock to walk in, vote, and walk out within two minutes. (It would have been quicker but I stopped to talk with the workers for a minute or so.)
In my district I only had choices in 3 elections.
That's because I am a registered humane individual who still believes we are all entitled to a fair shake and must all pull together for the greatness of this country by making sure that our poor and needy are taken care of and the few greedy wealthy corporations and business owners do not drown out the 'little' voices and our leaders do not lose sight of why they were elected and what their role in government truly is.  In other words a proud registered Democrat.
I cannot say who voted for whom but I can tell you that after being open for 9 hours my district had recorded only 36 votes!  28 proud Democrats voted while only 8 sadly misguided Republicans filled in their ballots.
I don't know what the final numbers will be in my area but with such a low tally and only 6 hours left I can assure you there will not be a flood of votes to count.
One can only hope that more people will actually take the time to shout with their ballots what their individual voices only seem to whisper:
We need a responsive working government.
We need all leaders to actually lead.
We need debates to be fair and truth based so that the electorate can make an informed decision.
We need to return to a time when the super rich did not control the government and the masses only thought they were being represented.
Wait, that last one is no longer possible.
We need to be more involved in our government so that we can start the road back to the time when 'We The People' all actually had an equal say in government and that government of, by and for us really cared about us.
And we can only do that by voting.
Each vote, like a droplet of water is a small thing but together we can roar like the ocean.

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