Do you vote?
BY BRUCE BRANUM The Greenville Standard
From the early beginnings of America, an idealistic governmental system of democracy “by the people, for the people” has been sought. One of the most basic rights as a citizen “of age” in the United States of America is in the say so in what type of governmental systems that you will support or might endure. To vote is the legitimacy of your thought on the future of you, your family and your community.
Our founding fathers realized that the great ideal of human nature is compassion and there results the freedom to express in civil manner. They and many others strove, bled and died to establish a system of government that guarantees rights to process inclusion, free speech and self defense.
Too many have sacrificed for the liberty to condone such a citizen state government system based on compassion, liberty and inclusion for you to ever disenfranchise yourself from the system. It is the most basic of your fundamental rights to have a say jn the ultimate determination in societal governance we call the United States.
We often think of history with romanticism and that there existed a greater civility amongst men, oft the truth was far from it. It is almost unimaginable to fathom the millions of people that have been disenfranchised (denied the right to vote) from the democratic process since the birth of the United States of America. From the outset of the development of the US Constitution and following later with its amendments there have been debates and arguments and lives given throughout its history of those who should be included in the right to vote.
The first people recognized to vote were white men of property, later with the Civil War and reconstruction men of color were given credit. In 1920, women were acknowledged and to follow were all American Indians; the poor; the citizens of the District of Columbia; and finally those ‘of the age eighteen’ in 1971, by the old adage ‘old enough to fight, old enough to vote.’
The gains and hates of the selfish have taken form in many manners of disenfranchisement including poll taxes, proof of property ownership, sex, race and literacy. The constitution was deliberately written broad in concept to encompass and ensure the ideal of the basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by providing a system of government controlled by the people.
We stand at a point in history our forefathers would say, “Job well done, but, be ever vigilant.” It is a sentiment that remembers why this nation was formed.
Give your mind to history and those who fought to preserve your rights of inclusion and why they felt “give me liberty or give me death” was worth all cost.
Give your mind to compassion for those who have a hope for inclusion and to share the freedoms that you so enjoy and are guaranteed in the great thought called the United States of America.
Take the time to vote on Dec. 12. Don’t vote by what the media tells you…vote your instinct of how to leave America a better place. Vote for the future of the United States of America.
