How I’m Celebrating the 250th year anniversary of the United States
I grew up in a small town in rural, upstate New York so I saw history through a lens that included Indian tribes and the American Revolution. The town of Geneseo was formed in 1789 as the Seneca Indians had called it the pleasant or beautiful valley and was settled by colonists in 1790. It was only one year after New York ratified and signed the Constitution.
I registered to vote when I turned 18 years of age and have voted in every Presidential election since. I’ve helped candidates who I believed in, knocking on doors and making phone calls. Even when my candidate didn’t win, I felt like I was contributing to the most important process we have in the US: voting.
A lot of causes that I believed in as an 18-year-old have come to pass but not all of them. I believed in the music of Woodstock, but not the drugs. We were all about environmental causes to save the environment. We were concerned about population growth and that the world couldn’t sustain the number of people projected for 2030. I drove a gas-conscious car and believed that everyone can contribute something to the well-being of society and the earth. I opposed the war in Viet Nam and wore a POW bracelet my Junior year of high school.
I’ve supported candidates in both dominant parties and have consistently voted for people that I believed were honest and trustworthy, and felt called to devote their lives to public service. The older I get it seems like there are fewer and fewer of those candidates and more and more that became enmeshed in the power and authority of politics and become life-time politicians.
I have become disillusioned with the candidates but not the process. What I’m celebrating on this Fourth of July is that we still have the right to vote. My vote counts just as much as the billionaire, not three-fifths but a whole vote.
I know people who have become jaded and say “why bother?” when the outcome is almost assured by who has raised the most money or which political party has the supermajority. But I remain hopeful that good people remain in society and that we will see a resurgence of them running and winning for office. I’ve already seen this in a good friend who was just elected to his City Council in Knoxville, TN.
My new home in Durham, NC is a retirement center and the only committee I’ve volunteered for so far is the Voting Registration Committee. I want everyone to register to vote and exercise their voice by voting in every local, regional and national election.
We should vote as if our life depends upon it.
Register to vote.
Go vote.
And Happy Fourth of July!
Blessings, my friend,
Agatha