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Community Corner

Why do I make the choice to vote?

A number of my friends who aren’t in politics have asked me constantly why do I vote? I have decided to explain it very simply with the three H’s.

History- No matter who you are, where you are from, what you believe in, everyone has ancestors who did not have the right to vote. Whether your ancestors couldn’t vote because of their race, ideology, religion, sex, gender, or politics, the bottom line is they couldn’t have a voice in who there leaders are. No voice in their taxes, who they could marry, what job opportunities they had, what education they could have, what land they could own, in the end no real choices at all. We owe it to those who could not vote and would have given anything for the opportunity to vote. Even today around the world people are dying, starving, homeless, jobless, and will continue to suffer because they do not have the right to vote. We owe it to them to exercise a right they can only dream of one day having.

Home- every person who is elected to a position locally, state wide, or nationally has a direct impact on your life. From how much we pay in our taxes, our roads, food we eat, our school system, libraries, nonprofits, parks, businesses and really anything you can think of. You owe it to yourself; your family and friends to vote for the people you believe will do the best job in making everyone’s lives better.

Hope: I know what your thinking, why hope? I mean depending where you live you see corruption, same people or party seems to win no matter what, you don’t like any candidate, not happy with the parties or the system, so why vote? The moment you choose not vote is the moment you say to yourself “I give up”. We as Americans can never give up on creating a better future. The idea the dream of creating a better future connects all American’s and makes us one people. When we chose not to vote we chose to give up on changing the system, ending corruption, and in time getting rid of the evil to create a new dawn of prosperity. We as human beings must hope that better days will come and by voting we take a step in that direction. If you chose not to vote nothing changes and all the things you hate just gets stronger and everyone suffers. Vote because all of us hope for things to get better, but only with action can we make that hope a reality.

Regardless if it’s a primary or general election it is your duty and privilege to have the opportunity to vote. The people you vote for may not always win, but your vote helped make the race closer then it could have been, and you can sleep knowing you voted for what you believed in. If you never vote then you will always lose and never win.

Do what’s right make the choice to vote.

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