How much does your vote mean to you?

How badly do you want to vote?  How much do you think the country IS or IS NOT going in the right direction?  Are you willing to sacrifice to make your voice heard? Waiting in line can be a sacrifice.

When I was old enough for my first opportunity to vote – which was 21 back in the day I had my first opportunity to vote – my Mom talked to me about the responsibility of voting.  I shared the same information with my girls when they were given their first chance to vote at age 18.  Mom said you research the candidates – all of the ones in races where you are planning to vote.  You carefully make your choice.  If your person wins and they don’t turn out to be the person you thought they were, you stay quiet until election time and then you become vocal so they are, hopefully, not chosen again.  She also said that if you carefully examine the people running for an office and you don’t like either of them - - don’t vote for either one of them!  It is okay to pass that part of the ballet by and not vote for either person.   I have passed by parts of the ballot nearly every time I have gone to vote.  There are actually elections on the ballots at the state level that I will probably NEVER vote on because I wonder why they aren’t just hired by the state instead of them being an elected official because there is no way for me to know anything about how worthy they are of my trust.  A hired person can be fired; an elected official sometimes keeps their job just because people recognize their name, not because they are trustworthy. Sometimes I look at how long someone has been in office and check to see if their voting record and take into account how many times they didn’t vote at all.  I have voted for Republican and Democrat candidates because my Mom said to do my own research and not to rely on what someone else tells me.  I rarely have the opportunity to hear Glenn Beck but recently heard him while I was driving back to work from a doctor’s appointment.  Glenn Beck told his listeners to NEVER forget to do their own research.  He said not to rely on him to be anything more than a instrument in each person’s quest to vote.

I met an adorable young lady who is from Venezuela and is a student at the University of South Florida.  When I first met her I was amazed to hear how far she had come to attend college.  Even more surprising was when she travelled home to vote.  I couldn’t believe that her country doesn’t have mail in voting. She told me she was registered at the embassy in Miami and was to travel there to cast her vote.  The day AFTER the registrations were closed and she was committed to that embassy, the embassy was closed which left her no place to vote without flying back to Venezuela.  So she flew back to Venezuela.  She left Saturday morning, flew from Tampa to Miami and then to Venezuela.  She was due back in class on Monday and had made plane reservations carefully so she would be back in time for class. Unfortunately her plane home was delayed and she didn’t make it back to class until Tuesday.  Her vote was so important to her that she not only flew home, she waited hours in line to cast her vote, only to come home on a 9 hour delayed flight and return to class with little rest.  She was so proud of what she had done.  Can you imagine how much that one vote cost in dollars, not just lack of sleep?

How long are you willing to wait in line?  Are you willing to take someone else to the poll?  How much does your vote mean to you?  Did you do your own research or did you rely on your Facebook or your neighbor to tell you who will do the best for you?  Is your union telling you who to vote for?  You pay them but I dare say you aren’t expecting them to make up your mind for you.  You are 24 hours away from the end of this cycle and the next cycle will begin almost immediately.  Don’t grow weary, make a choice and cast your vote.