The Choice Is Ours

A week ago it was reported that 20 million people across the country had already cast their ballots for the midterm election.  I will cast my vote today, along with several million other people.  Will my vote and your vote count?  “For anybody here,” Oprah Winfrey said in Georgia last week, “who has an ancestor who didn’t have the right to vote, and you are choosing not to vote—wherever you are in this state, in this country—you are dishonoring your family.”  Oprah was not alluding to African-Americans— her point applies to all of us “immigrants” whose forefathers and mothers came from distant lands where the right to vote was denied.  Some came to these shores for that reason. It applies to women—all women in this country—who did not have the right to vote until 1919!  Yes, if we do not vote, we are dishonoring our mothers, fathers, our historical family.  And, if we do not vote, we are also dishonoring the American dream of a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Just going to the polls and casting your vote is not enough. You must vote intelligently.  You need to know the candidates and what they stand for and intend to do while in office.  You must vote your values.  Does the person you are voting for represent what you believe is important for our country and all its citizens?  Abraham Lincoln warned that what we vote for has serious consequences. “Elections belong to the people,” Lincoln said, “It’s their decision.  If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”

What decision will the “people” make today?  I am deeply concerned about that this morning—it weighs heavily on me.  I’m reminded of that passage in the Old Testament where Joshua tells his people, “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).   That’s precisely what we are doing at the polls today.  Will we turn our backs to the fire and vote to discontinue the freedom of speech  and the freedom of the press—believing that we are voting in support of the 2nd Amendment?  Will we vote to continue the last two years of falsehood, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and the dehumanization of our people—believing we are voting to uphold the Constitution?   Joshua is still shouting:  “Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve.” That is what we are doing today.  I pray we as a people choose wisely.