For Release November 5, 2006

Voting - The Acid Test of Citizenship

AGRI-VIEWS

by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent


This is a very important week to citizens of our country, state, county and community. This week contains Election Day, that time when we cast votes that will determine who represents us, makes decisions that impact us and determine policy for the next two, four or six years, depending on where you live. Like everyone else, I'm getting tired of all the election advertisements and ongoing rhetoric. I see lots of commercials telling me that this candidate or that candidate is "the right choice!" The way that I see, the only wrong choice is to not vote at all!

I've ranted and raved before about this, but I'm going to continue to rant and rave until I have no breath left, or until we start seeing voter turnout that surpasses 90%. We have a lot of people around this country claiming to have a high degree of citizenship, yet they rarely vote. This just doesn't make sense to me. Over 200 years ago we had a group of citizens who signed a document saying that they believed in a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The gentlemen that signed that document were literally putting their lives on the line, if the British had won the Revolutionary War.

A government of the people, by the people and for the people. What an incredible concept! Countries around the world are right now trying to emulate that concept. Countries that have been ruled by dictators for decades are trying to learn the concept of a democracy. In many of those countries, American women and men are dying to help support that country's effort to become a county, "of the people, by the people and for the people."

Yet while people are dying trying to make that dream come true, we have citizens in our own country who take all those rights for granted! That just makes me mad! Has the populace of this great country gotten so ho-hum, after 230 years, that they think they can take for granted what so many have died for? Sadly, so it would seem.

I've seen and heard all the reasons. I'm too busy. My one vote doesn't make a difference. They are all alike. The big companies control it all anyway, yada, yada, yada... Don't waste your breathe on me because none of the excuses hold water in my book. If they are true, then they have become true BECAUSE people quit going and voting. If you don't trust the politicians, get involved in the process and elect someone you can trust.

The whole thing about a democracy is that it requires involvement of the people. The very root of the word democracy, demos, means common people. As the number of people involved in selecting our leaders and representatives decreases, the less of a democracy it becomes until you have so few people making the decisions that the form of government has become an oligarchy; government by a few.

So there you have it. It's a simple choice. Get out and vote on Tuesday and exercise your right and responsibility as a citizen of a democracy. Or make up excuses and don't vote and do your fair share of pushing this democracy off towards some less desirable form of government. If you don't feel like you know enough to vote, there's still time to learn. If you need some assistance in getting to the polls, there are lots of people who are willing to help you get to the polling locations. There will be a lot of choices to make on Tuesday, and the only bad choice will be if you decide to not vote at all. I'll see you at the polls!

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