This is an important year for our country! On November 4, 2008, this country will go to the voting booths in the process to elect a new leader, the President of the United States! If you are 18 or will be by Election Day, you have reached voting age as an American citizen and that is a major milestone! Please register to vote! If you have not or are not sure how to register to vote, please visit http://www.eac.gov/voter/how-to-contact-your-state-election-office. Click on your state’s website to obtain all of the information you need to register to vote. Do not take your right to vote for granted! It is a privilege to be able to make your vote count!
I recently saw a quote that said “bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote”. When you do not vote, you give up your right to complain about the actions of the officials in office. By voting, you get to let your opinion count. I truly hope that you have been paying attention to what has been going on in this country so that you can maturely help elect the person who you think will best take care of all the things that are important to you and your family.
This election year is one of the most profound election years in our country’s history! There is so much going on in our world right now that it is sometimes baffling how any of us can even keep it all together. But the fact remains that we have to carry on, we have to live each day, and we have to maintain. Gas prices are at an all time record high, health care is at sky rocket prices or non existing (depending on your family’s wealth) the economy is a mess, the military is exhausted! We are in desperate need of a leader who can at least begin to repair some of the damage that has been done by our current President.
It is not my place to tell you who to vote for as this is certainly no campaign support site. But I think we can all agree that something needs to be done about the mess that this country is in right now.
If you have been doing your homework and following the candidates and what they have been telling or showing about what they intend to do as President, then you should have enough information by now to know who you feel would represent this country the best. If you haven’t been following the candidates, it is not too late. Last night the Democrat Convention ended with an excellent speech by Senator Barack Obama. If you missed the Democrat’s convention, you can visit the convention website at http://www.demconvention.com/. The Republican Convention starts on Monday, September 1, 2008 with Senator John McCain and his camp. The Republican Convention site is http://www.gopconvention.com/. There is still time for you to catch up on the campaign of both candidates. Make a list of all the things that you would like to see this country improve on. Start with the things that directly affect you, your home, your neighborhood, your school and if you really want to make an informed choice, do some research on the jobs that both candidates have done to date as Senators. Know what issues are important to you and your family and compare your list with both candidates to see who has the same ideas, principals, priorities and beliefs as you.
For those of you who have reached voting age, it is so important to understand why your opinion counts! Before now, most of the day to day family decisions have been pretty much left up to your parents or other adults to deal with. Now that you are becoming an adult, the issues that your parents have been dealing with will soon become your cross to bear, as well! As you know, a president is elected for 4 years, and if able to convince enough people that he has done his job, he could get elected for four more years. If you are at least 18 years old, the decision you make or the one you don’t make can follow you from now until you are at least 26 years old, which means you could certainly have a family by then and your decision to vote or not to vote now will certainly affect you, your spouse and your children in the future!
Voting isn’t mandatory in the sense that you will be personally penalized if you don’t vote. But it is mandatory in the sense that our country could be penalized if you choose not to vote! If you are ready to show the world that you are becoming an adult, this is one of the first adult things that you get to do. So please, don’t choose to remain silent, choose to VOTE!
If you have any questions, please email me and I will help you or make sure you get to someone who can help you!
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3 comments:
What a wonderful topic, Dolly! I know that there are people who feel that it is "no big deal" to vote or they feel that it's a pain to keep up with all the political drama, but voting is SO IMPORTANT! Like you said, if you don't vote, you can't complain. There may also be people who feel that while they can certainly go to the polls and vote, that there opinion, or their vote, doesn't really matter. But consider this: if you don't vote, you're ensuring that your opinion won't matter. If you do vote, at least your opinion will be on record. Can't beat that!
Thank you blessedwith4! I want our young people to learn early that voting is important and that they should vote every time the opportunity comes around. I want them to understand that all of the officials in office work for the American citizens and voting is the ONLY way you get to participate in electing those officials.
You know what? That is something that I'll bet not many young people really know. Those who are in office, from Congressman, to Senators, to the President, they all work for us. Not only is it our American duty to make sure our opinions are counted, by voting, but it is also our American duty to question those in office. Yes, we are not only allowed to, but we should! Contact your officials if you don't like something or have a suggestion, even. These people seem out of reach to us, almost un-human, but they are people just like you and me. They weren't born Senators or born being the President, were they? No, at some point, they were just common citizens, too. I'm going off on a tangent but, it is so important to vote - to have your voice heard!
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