The year after I graduated from college I lived with two other young women outside Washington, DC. Every morning I carpooled with one of them to the Metro station. This young woman was the same age as me, a Harvard graduate, and a citizen of the country of Zimbabwe.
On Election Day that year, I got up early, went over to my polling station to vote, then came back to pick her up and head to work. Once we were settled in the car she asked me, "What was it like?" At first I was confused by her question. "Well, it was like normal. I went in, showed my ID, got my ballot and voted. The line wasn't that long, that was nice." As I went through this routine description, it occurred to me that my experience was anything but routine for her. In her country, if and when they have elections, they are not free and not fair. I suspect that while voting was a completely ordinary thing for me, it was a completely extraordinary thing for her, who could still not participate but only ask what the experience was like.
While I do have strong opinions on who I am voting for tomorrow and why (and who I am not voting for and why) I will spare you a political tirade. We're all tired of that at this point. What I do hope this post reminds you of is that voting is a privilege. Please don't take it for granted. Make time to exercise your right to vote tomorrow and be grateful that we live in the country we live in. Even if your candidate of choice doesn't win tomorrow, this will still be the home of the free on Wednesday and I thank God for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment