This postTwo hundred years ago we shook off the shackles of oppression, buying our freedom with the blood of our people. Patriotism and passion made that happen. If the founding fathers hadn’t cared, do you think we would be here today? I’m not just talking about the big names like Jefferson and Franklin and Washington, but think about it: without all the little guys — the soldiers who were really just fathers and grandfathers and brothers and sons, and everyone else supporting the effort through their labors — the Revolution would have fizzled and died.
Two centuries later we sit on our haunches watching TV and eating Cheetoes with orange fingers blipping the remote from channel to channel. This is progress?
You see, we love our leisure — worship it, even — but many of us don’t seem to realize that if we don’t wake ourselves up out of our collective apathy, we’re going to lose it all. Complacency has swept the nation by storm, leaving a distrust of politics and government in its wake. Yes, there are often very good reasons for distrusting those in the system, but if anything that should kindle up blazing fires within us to change things, not to sit around bemoaning how bad everything has gotten.
We’re used to America being the best. The underdog fought the giant, won, and has now ballooned out across the continent. Like the sun, America’s influence touches every corner of the globe. We don’t even need to invade and conquer other nations; American culture is quickly becoming global culture. We’re cultural imperialists who have taken over the world.
But you know what? It won’t last. Give it a few more decades, maybe a century or two at the most, and we’ll be reading The Decline and Fall of the American Empire. Some other nation — China, perhaps, or Russia, or maybe some small nation nobody’s paid much attention to — will rise in prominence and America will no longer be king of the hill.
It’s not that being the best is really what matters. It doesn’t. The reason this is a problem has nothing to do with stats and everything to do with the health of a country. When America starts decaying — and it already has, in many ways — it will be because its people no longer care. Just imagine if you stopped showering, no longer brushed your teeth or washed your hair, forgot to clean your clothes. That’s going to be us, folks.
But we can stop it. You and me, we can make a difference. Politics is not just for politicians. Two hundred years ago, some people like you and me hucked a boulder into a pond, and the ripples are still cascading out. Fight the apathy. It’s poison.
True, it takes sweat and tears to preserve a nation, to secure and then guard our certain unalienable rights. As citizens of this nation, it is our duty to study and ponder these things — not just the current contenders and their platforms, but also the history of not just our nation but others, to gain a better appreciation for what we’ve got and what it will undoubtedly turn into if we let go of the reins. Will we forfeit our heritage? What kind of a world will we leave for our children? If we do nothing, our rights and our freedoms will vanish like dew under the rays of the morning sun.
Those who don’t vote are leeches on our society, hanging on and sucking us dry while America totters on. I’ve been one of them. It’s been pitifully easy to enclose myself in my own little world, a portable bubble, ignoring what’s going on in the world out there. Most political decisions haven’t affected me very much. That won’t last. But by the time I open my eyes and realize what’s going on, it’ll probably be too late. An object in motion will remain in motion, Newton said, and when it’s built up that much momentum, how much of an outside force will it take to stop it?
Is it better to cast an uneducated vote or not to vote at all? Vote, I say. Even if you mess things up this time, at least you’re getting in the habit. And if you don’t want to vote, then listen, please move to some monarchy where your voice doesn’t make a bit of difference. America is a land of the people. Let’s keep it that way.
“Why you should vote” posts on other blogs:
If you blog about voting (and whether it’s today or later this week doesn’t matter to me), let me know and I’ll link to it here.
