By all that is Good and Holy, Vote

A short rallying cry today:  my friends, please please please vote.

I know we're tired.  I know that we won't miss seeing all these blasted ads and recycling half of our mail because it's mostly political flyers.  I know that if you saw just one more email from a campaign asking for money you were thinking idly about giving money to the other just out of spite (not that you would).  I know that it's tough to turn on the news (app, TV, whatever) when you're not sure if you're ready to be angry right now.  Priorities are all out of whack.  Our representatives are not holistically representative of who we are.  And there is so much pettiness and insensitivity.  People get away with more than we would have believed possible.

We're exhausted.  It's still important.

I've talked to people that believe their vote doesn't matter.  I've also seen the numbers and instances where the values are cut by the narrowest margins, literally down to a single vote.  And I've seen people buy lottery tickets with more optimism in winning than voting.  Folks, if you can buy a lottery ticket with odds of three hundred and some odd billion to one, twenty minutes of your time voting can affect your life far more than not winning the lottery today.  It's one of those situations where even if it's "not going to matter," what do you really lose by doing it anyway?  With the lottery, you're out two dollars; with voting, it's just a few minutes out of your day.  If it "doesn't matter," then why not do it anyway?

It's hard not to feel discouraged.  I've been cutting news consumption out of my day to allow myself to recover, but I'm careful not to waver on elements that are still important, such as my firm belief that all persons deserve equal rights--Muslim, gay, trans, black, female, Hispanic, disabled, and all else--and that we must be firm against those that try to insist otherwise.  It's not being uncivil to stand against injustice.  There's a huge difference between attacking the person and attacking the problem (some discussion here in previous posts).  It is okay to disagree with people--someone that is disagreeing with you is not specifically attacking you or persecuting you.  We can be above this false-dichotomy bullshit, along the lines of "if you don't agree with me, you're unamerican."

But I digress.  There's a lot to be angry about--your anger and your feelings have merit.  How you channel that anger, though, that is what will show elements of your character and invoke change, for better or worse (further discussion here and here).  Keep courage, my friends.  You're stronger than you know.  Voting is the least you can do, putting a definitive voice out there to join the throng.  That may be all that you can do, depending on life circumstances and what you need to do for your own self-care, but please do it.

Hang in there.  I suspect some things are going to get worse before they get better, but we can find each other now, hold each other up, and challenge one another to be better.