Qualified to Vote
Nov 4th, 2008 by Wes
“I am unqualified to vote” was my usual response whenever asked if I had voted. “What do you mean?” was the reply. “Well, I do not watch T.V. nor do I read newspapers or magazines and I have no personal experience with any of the candidates or legal proposals so I am, therefore, unqualified to vote.” a perfectly rational and mature response as far as I was concerned.
Not only am I going to vote tomorrow I am sending out this message to the world to remind any and all that each and every vote counts, qualified or not.
Why such a change in philosophical belief? I owe it all to the people of Nicaragua. I spent a good portion of my summer of 2007 reading and studying the current history of Nicaragua. I read about the culture of the people and learned about the current political structures and spent time in the country talking to men who fought in the civil war to regain their rights as citizens of a free state and earned their opportunity to vote. I learned that when the people of this tiny nation were free to cast their vote that over 90% of the population went to the polls to place the check next to the candidate they believed in. I learned that voting is a privilege not a right. I learned that without the privilege to vote it is possible to lose basic human freedoms like education, choice of religion, life and liberty. I learned that the freedom to vote is a responsibility that can one day be taken away. I learned that Nicaraguan’s would walk for days to reach a poll where they could cast their vote and exercise their responsibility. I learned that as a complacent citizen of the United States I had not only taken my right to vote for granted, I spiritually disdained the responsibility. I had become unaware of the importance of one small act and had chosen to relinquish my right to be a part of a greater whole. Being far removed from the time and place where men and women lost their lives to earn the privilege to vote and I just did not care.
Well, now I do, and I thank my friends in Nicaragua for fighting for their right to vote and for continuing to show up at the ballot box in enthusiastic numbers because they know in their hearts that the privilege to vote is fragile and it cost tens of thousands of lives and took many decades to achieve. I thank my friends in Nicaragua for helping me see the importance of my role in my country in my state in my county and in my city.
If I don’t vote this time then the day may come when I am not allowed to vote. It that day comes I will have wished I had voted: Qualified or not.
