Vote!

In case you missed it, today is Election Day.  A day, I for one, take very seriously.  It’s my right as an American, and a right that was fought for long and hard by women long before me. The day I turned 18 I registered to vote.  I have only missed voting one time and it was because I was lame and forgot. 

Washington is a mail-in ballot state. A couple of weeks ago, in our mail boxes, our ballots arrived. I tore into it like a child tearing into a present on Christmas.  I wanted to see what was on there and start my process of voting.

Grabbing a black pen, I sat cross-legged on the couch with my cup of coffee, my cat, my voters pamphlet, and my ballot.  Together we’re changing history.

The interesting thing about voting, and being an American, is we’re a democracy.  Because of the sacrifices made from members of the armed forces, our freedoms – be them of speech, of religion, etc – comes at a high cost to maintain those freedoms.  And while those freedoms are being paid for by lives and blood of men and women, my job is to vote. 

In my gaggle of friends and family I have people who are Republicans, Democrats, and some who just don’t care (I feel the most sorry for them – they don’t get to complain about politics in my opinion. If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain. Period.)  And often my Republican friends and I do not agree on politics.  That being said, usually (there are exceptions – and those exceptions and I are no longer friends), they respect my opinions and I respect there’s.  When we discuss politics there’s never a thought in our minds that we’re going to change the other person’s view.  We discuss, we even argue, but at the end of the day, we fall on the same side of being Americans who get a voice.  I try to remember that not all nations (and certainly not women in all nations) have that right. And while we may fall on different sides of an issue, I respect people enough to let them have their opinions.

I know I don’t stand alone in feeling that this campaign season has been a brutal one.  The name calling, the mudslinging, the out and out lies (on both sides), the finger pointing, it’s all be so draining. And has caused me, more than once, to grab my hair and scream “I can’t take it anymore!”  There are nights watching campaign commercials where I want to not vote for certain candidates because of the horrific, untrue commercial they aired.

Politicians, to me, have a tough job. They really have to try to please everyone. But just once, ONCE, I’d like a candidate to have a campaign that is more positive. More open minded and welcoming of others who may not believe the way they do. I wonder how many more votes that candidate would get for being that way.

I think we all need to take a step back, stop being so grade-schoolish, grow up and go vote. And despite who wins, as Americans, we can work together to do all the things that need to be done to keep our future one that is cherished.