Five on Friday

Thoughts about voting

Voting in the U.S. presidential election ends in four days. It used to be that elections would be called on election night. We went to bed knowing the name of the president-elect, confident there would be a peaceful transfer of power.

It’s probably going to be a rough ride getting from here to the Inauguration. Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed. Maybe you’re feeling overcome by anxiety. Maybe you’re feeling conflicted or disillusioned.

Our job as Americans is to vote. Our job as souls walking around in human bodies is to take care of ourselves and one another. Your anxiety is normal (it would be weird if you weren’t feeling anxious) and so is your desire to feel better and so is your desire for a better system.

Five On Friday posts offer you bite-sized ideas, prompts, or thoughts built around a theme to take into your weekend, so today, I’m sharing some thoughts about voting.

Dolores Huerta

Voting is the only non-violent weapon we have to make sure that our families are protected, the workers are protected, that the money that we pay in taxes goes where it should go: to help working people, education, health care, infrastructure improvements—for the things that we need to keep our country safe and secure and educated.

The only way we can change policies is by electing the people that make the policies… We can march and we can protest, but it’s not going to change anything. The only ones to change the policies are the people that we elect to office. So we should never deceive ourselves to think, ‘If I march, that’s going to make the difference.’ Yes, marching is good because we communicate, we have the energy, we feel powerful when we’re all together, but it’s not going to change anything unless we take that march to the ballot box.

Coretta Scott King

Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.

Sarah Eagle Heart

Right now it’s more imperative than ever for us to vote. There are many threats that are happening to our communities, some that are long term and life changing, even more so for Native American communities. Many of our rural communities have been at poverty levels and unemployment levels of 80 percent and above for decades and decades and it’s time for this environment to change.

We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and mistrust…We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.

Alessandra Biaggi

Politics affects all of us. I’ve met so many people who say, “I don’t do politics” or “I don’t vote,” and it drives me crazy. I say, “Well, see that banana that you’re eating? That’s political. There was a political decision made behind that banana. And that air you’re breathing? That’s also political.” So we cannot sit back. I spend my time thinking about the young people who don’t talk politics at the table because it’s taboo. It’s not taboo. We need to talk about it everywhere. I want to say to young people, “You might not think about running for district leader or school president or whatever role it is in your town, but you should, because if you don’t do it, somebody else will, and they’re going to decide how your whole life looks. It’s up to you.”

Gloria Steinem

The voting booth is still the only place that a pauper equals a billionaire and any woman equals any man. It is the only place on earth in which everybody’s equal. If we didn’t fall for the idea that our vote doesn’t count—an idea nurtured by those who don’t want us to use it—we could elect feminists, women of all races, and some diverse men, too, who actually represent the female half of the country equally. It’s up to us. One vote does in fact count.

I don’t know who said it, but it’s true that a vote is not a Valentine. We don’t vote for a candidate because we agree with everything they say or everything they’re going to do, but in this country, like it or not, we have a two party system and the two parties are not the same. In this election, we are quite literally voting for our lives. So let’s get out there and do it.

Take care. I love you.

LL