Why I Vote

Everyone has a story of why voting matters.

If you don’t vote, you are writing someone else’s story.

Today voting matters to me because we in the United States of America have been given a gift that many people never get, the right to put our needs on the record, to have a say in how our society works.

I vote because so many people are denied that right.

I vote to remove the barriers to voting, because there are still many of our own fellow citizens who are kept from voting.

I vote because if my candidate loses my vote is part of the warning to the winner that they are not the favorite of everyone. My vote is part of the record of other opinions.

I vote because I believe in the Social Contract of a Democracy, specifically our democracy, in which we can share the decisions about quality of life and sharing resources. Sharing the decision, not one group making decisions for everyone else. Decisions about food and water, shelter, health, guidelines for commerce. I want my voice to be part of the common good.

I vote because the common good is so much more important to share with my fellow citizens than my personal choices of how to live my life. I do not want anyone to tell me how to live and I don’t want to tell anyone else how to live.

I vote because I believe in the Separation of Church and State. I believe that all personal decisions of religion are not to be subject to government laws.

I vote because I have the right to live my personal beliefs as I choose. My personal beliefs are not part of the “common good”, and I don’t vote to make myself feel good about them.

I vote because a person’s body is their own and no law should be made about a person’s body. There are no laws about men’s bodies and there should be no laws about a woman’s body. I vote because any law about abortion is a law that goes right through a woman’s body and no one has the right to make a law about a person’s body. Codifying control over a person’s body or their labor, is slavery and that is already illegal and Unconstitutional.

I vote because I am increasingly aware of low grade mental health issues — developmental disabilities, lead poisoning, brain issues from Lyme disease, depression and other mental and personality disorders — that affect our social cognition and have no support system. I want the mental heath care funding put back into our social safety net. Ronald Reagan dismantled it and I want it back for my fellow Americans.

I vote because we should be taking care of each other.

I vote because property has been given more value than We the People. Almost every decision being made by the current administration is about economic value and statistics.

I vote because the health of each of us is more important than protecting acquired wealth. Acquired wealth is not earned wealth. A corporation can always go acquire more wealth, but a person dead for lack of health care or lack of good leadership in a pandemic is lost forever.

I vote because I believe in the rays of hope that voting can transform into reality.

I vote because even when the vote count doesn’t go my way, I have a voice in my story.

My opening statement is incomplete. If you don’t vote someone else is writing your story.

Voting resources:
How to Vote

Thank you for reading my story

In my day job, I restore family photographs. Each family story shows the importance of learning history and sharing stories. On Medium, I write about our human nature, my experiences, and episodes in our collective story. Part of my story is that I am a founding board member of Kitsune, Inc., 501c3 non-profit. We work on creative solutions for independent living for adults with developmental disabilities, but without an intellectual disability — our fellow citizens who fall through the cracks in our social safety net.
Your participation supports this work too. Please Follow me here on Medium, and see my work at ChandlerDesignsLimited.com.