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Titles hold meaningless values that society attaches to them. I hate titles. Why can’t we just address each other by the names we’ve been given, for that is who and what we are. My name is the doorstep to the what makes my soul what my name portrays. My beliefs should not label me, my ideals should not call me, and my employment should not limit me. My name, however should honor me.
I don’t know how many of you stay in touch with the world around us, actually, I know many of you don’t. And to that I say, as citizen in this country of our great country, how can you not? What society parishes unto you, you must give in return.
We grow up shaded by our parents, marinated in possibilities and the beliefs they, and those around us hold. We have no duty to participate in a belief system and many of us don’t. Many of us take on the ideals of our parents. The brave ones grow their own values and beliefs. The best parents let them.
However, come the eighteenth year of life, it is time to enter the calling of democracy. The world around us counts on you, and me, to be active citizens and take inventory of the beliefs we hold to vote for those we believe will carry on our ideas as best as possible. It is our duty to elect a representative for whatever duty, that you believe will get this world where you want it to be.
Strip the system of the political titles and rid it of the negative controversies that it embodies and simply stand on your own two feet, do your homework and vote for the person you think can make your change. Don’t let fear, or others decide for you. Decide for yourself. And if you don’t than you are holding yourself and your country back. There are no excuses, like the ever popular “I hate politics, I just like to stay away from them,” or “I don’t like anyone so I’m not voting.” There is really no acceptable excuse. Voting is one of the greatest freedoms this country beholds, and you non-voters spat in the face of our forefathers.
On the coat-tails of the Egyptian revolution, my state of Wisconsin is in crumbles. The power of Egyptians young and old fighting for their rights, and freedom won them a huge victory. A victory that moved me to a new place of appreciation for the land that I walk on and this city Country, that I call home. I couldn’t help but flash back to the images that flanked my elementary history book pages, and videos that we loathed to watch. I could hear my fifth grade teacher telling me “never give up, always move forward.” And my father saying “you can do whatever you set your mind to.”
And then our newly appointed Governor brought my spirits back to earth as he decided to strip me of the very rights that many Egyptians loosely just fought so hard for and won. And it was impossible for me not to feel this shudder of disdain and hurt. “But how can just one person take away something that so many value so very much?” I kept saying. I kept asking Ryan, “There’s no way this can really happen is there?” Soon after the discovery of the bill, proposed to the house on Friday, and pushed to be past within the week [in a secret huddle], an uproar encroached on my home-town Capitol building. And I realized that this is much bigger than me. It is much bigger than you. And it all goes back to the vote. An election. I’m not to say that had 100% educated voters turned out to the polls we’d not be in the same predicament. But I have to wonder?
I couldn’t help but get swept away in it all.
The images of people standing up for their rights.
The images of people fighting for what they believe in.
The images.
The sounds.
The chats.
The faces.
The kids. The hundreds of kids marching around the square.
Proud American citizens, reveling in the beauty of freedom and all that it entitles them to.
Solidarity is what they want. And I can’t help but get swept away in it all.
(“A fellowship arising from common responsibilities and interests, as between members of a group or between classes, peoples, etc”)
Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
