Free Advice Saturday: In the wake of the Trayvon Martin verdict; my advice today is less protesting and more voting! It amazes me the number of people that will protest or conduct a sit-in but won’t vote. Voting is proactive and protesting is reactive. Many Americans will stand in line for 4-8 hours to vote in a presidential election but won’t stand in line 15 minutes to vote in their local, city, county or state elections. The turnout for local elections in some states is 20-30%. I would submit that laws passed at the local and state level are more significant to American’s everyday life than any law passed at the federal level. I would rather vote and stop these shameful laws from ever being enacted into law than protest and try to get them changed after the fact. The way that you stop these laws, that are harmful to the public, is to vote for people that support ideas that you support on a local level. It time to stand up and take back your local, city, and state governments. As long as most Americans sit on the sideline during local elections; the fight to overturn these unfair and unjust laws will continue. The battle lines are already drawn. Americans know where each political party stands on every important issue ie guns, a woman’s right to choose, and taking care of the most vulnerable in our society. I would rather stop an issue from ever becoming law than try to change it after the fact by protesting. Lastly, protest and sit-ins don’t work on one political party. Just ask the good residents of Ohio and Florida. One political party could care less what the American public wants or thinks. They will continue to enact the laws that they want because they know…YOU are not going to VOTE!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 17:30:25 +0000