SUBJECT OR CITIZEN? IT’S WHY OUR VOTES MATTER On Tuesday, if not before, over a quarter million UCubed fans will go vote. Hopefully, they will take along a couple of friends or family members. But even if they go by themselves, they will not go alone. Over 80 million Americans will join them in that seminal act of self-government. Politicians win or lose elections; voters never do. Each time they vote they reaffirm a decision Americans made back in 1776. They fought to be citizens, not subjects. You see, theres a huge difference between being a subject and a citizen. A subject is governed by a king or queen, tsar or dictator, emperor or fuehrer. A citizen is self-governed -- he or she makes the rules that society lives under by electing their own representatives. Voting is but the first and easiest step in the process of self-government. Staying informed; staying engaged in the process; voicing your concerns, pressuring your elected representatives and, when necessary, voting them out of office; obeying the laws enacted until they can be changed by those representatives or, if unconstitutional, overturned by the courts; defending us from enemies foreign and domestic -- all are elements of self-government. But it starts with a single vote – yours. And if you dont care enough about your country to do that simple, basic act of self-government, then why should your friends and family members -- let alone your elected representatives or the rest of America -- listen to you gripe about how awful things are or how terrible so and so is. Some folks fault judges for decisions they disagree with vehemently. And yet, under our Constitution, the courts can decide a law is unconstitutional or its implementation violates a statute or it contravenes precedents long established. But who chooses those judges? Citizens do by voting for them directly at the state or local level or, if they are federal judges, then by voting for a president who nominates them and senators who confirm them. By not voting, you opt out of our Experiment in Democracy. You may decide to do that because that, too, is your right as a citizen. But a lot of good men and women fought and died for the right to govern themselves as citizens, to cast ballots as a free people. And by not voting, you dishonor their memory and place at risk what Abraham Lincoln called the last, best hope of mankind. In the final analysis, it is not your duty to vote. Its your right to govern yourself thats at stake. I hope you exercise that right every chance you get. Rick Sloan UCubed
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 13:57:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015