Being a Responsible Voter
Critical times call for a strong response
When I was a young mother of twins at the age of 21, I didn’t take (or have?) time to follow much news in the United States, especially politics. This was an era similar to now when college-age students were protesting war.
I was pregnant with those twins and finishing college as well. I watched some evening news on TV but didn’t focus attention to what was happening. I continued to be lazy about tracking news for many years.
I always voted a straight ticket, choosing women whenever possible. I noted job titles but spent little time on candidates’ bios. I speed-read through ballot issues and struggled with what seemed like double negatives and confusing pros and cons.
Now retired with more time available, more wisdom and life experience, I follow what is happening in the world quite closely. I can study the ballot proposals and weigh them to make a choice.
I wish had paid more attention to the news because now I have to look up more information and research history. I missed out on a lot. I was recently blown away watching the Netflix series on the bomb and the Cold War.
New terminology comes into popular use suddenly and I can’t figure out how and who dunnit. AI is too short to be such an important term, but I cannot think of a replacement.
Some years ago I started learning politically correct and incorrect terms for racial groups. I had no idea whether to say Latino or Latin American or even when it was decided not to say Negro.
Gay was simple to understand once I passed the stage of saying queer as a kid, and believing that if you wore yellow it meant you were queer.
Now there is a whole mouthful of terms that keep getting added to the string LGBTQ. Neurodivergent was just autism when I was studying psychology. How you identify became a social and political expression seemingly overnight.
Woke seems to be an unkind word being thrown around without reason. I hadn’t even known it was a word or that it merited criticism and a political stance by many.
Of course, I am revealing my age and generation here. All I know for sure now is that the United States and many countries of the world are in serious jeopardy if one trusts that Democracy is a good thing.
I have difficulty understanding why people who have always lived in a Democracy would want to turn over decision-making about their lives to one person or even just a handful. What am I missing?
I live in Central America and have for over ten years, but I always vote in the United States. I submit absentee ballots and luckily have a residence in a state that allows that.
It has been challenging for me to vote from this country because my state requirement is that my ballot must be sent by FAX. Those machines started to disappear here several years ago. Now I submit my ballot through a local US political organization.
Every vote counts and should be counted.
If you don’t vote because you don’t like the candidates, please remember you helped cause the result of whoever wins.
Younger generations now seem to be more engaged than I was, and so many are a lot more aware. They are the ones who most need to vote and decide who will be running the government. Yes, as oldsters we know that experience and wisdom matter, but they have to live with the choices a lot longer than we will.
All voices matter, and I hope the youngest voters will get all their friends to speak out by ballot.
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