Why I Will Vote Tuesday And You Should Too

There is only one thing that makes me crazier than when I hear a woman claim she is a Romney/Ryan supporter. It’s when a woman says she may not vote. Actually it makes me crazy when anyone tells me they may not vote. Ask the Greek on the corner of Broadway and 62^nd Street who owns the coffee cart where I buy my Christmas tree every year.

Friday morning when we were catching up on how we made it through Sandy, he interjected how he had a fight with his wife that morning. He told her he was so mad that there wasn’t enough aide getting to his neighbors, he wasn’t going to vote. She kept telling him he had to. I did the best I could, telling him she was right, reminding him that if Romney gets elected it wouldn’t be an issue to get angry about because there would be no aide to get there. Ever. There would be no FEMA. Romney would get rid of it.  By the time I left him I made him promise he would vote. He said yes, but refused to look me in the eye. So I’m not convinced he will. But I did start to worry about something other than Sandy and the destruction and upset she has left in her wake.

I started to worry about people voting. Which is unusual because as a rule, I am not a worrier. I prefer to trust and turn things over to a power greater than myself. But when I do worry, I write. And today it is about why you should vote.

I can’t profess to understand why any woman would cast a vote for a man who represents a party that does not support women’s rights, one who changes his opinion more often than he changes those expensive shirts he wears. A man who reminds me of that charmer with a nice smile we’ve all fallen prey to at sometime in our lives. The one who will tell you anything you want to hear. Until he gets what he wants and then he is back to his old ways.

In the case of Romney, we can’t be sure what those ways are, he changes his views so often. But his party doesn’t nor does his Vice Presidential running mate. They are clear that they do not support women’s issues. They think they, as policy makers, should determine what a woman should do with her body. Forcibly. They think we should all do what their God says is moral and right, even if ours might be saying something different. They claim to believe in less government intervention, except when it comes to a women’s body. They say they want job growth and a balanced budget yet they made their priority for the last four years that President Obama not be given a second term.  They are the party of hypocrisy.

But to not vote at all. To not exercise our right as free citizens in a democratic society.  That to me is the most immoral act of all.

So yes, I will vote on Tuesday.  And I will vote for President Barack Obama.

• I will vote because I can.  In 1912 just one hundred years ago, women were not allowed to vote. Which meant my grandmothers did not have the option as young women. They would be angry with me not to.
• I will vote because I’ve been given a voice. I will use it. We all complain when we are not heard. A vote is our chance to exercise that voice.
• I will vote because my vote does count. And so does yours. And the next person and the next. Collectively we make a difference.
• I will vote because apathy is not an attractive quality. Thinking my vote will not make a difference is a cop out. It does and it will.
• I will vote for all of our daughters, nieces, sisters and every generation to come. As the Dalai Lama has said, it is Western Women who will heal the world. That can’t happen with people in power who want to set women back fifty years and suggest placing an aspirin between ones knees as an effective method of contraception.

If you are a woman or as Nicholas Kristof stated so well in The New York Times, one of  “the men who love them” you should be voting too.

If you live, like I do in the areas hit by Sandy, it may not be as easy to fit in your day.  But that is not another excuse not to vote. It’s another reason why it is so important.

Vote Tuesday, November 6, 2012.



Note: A version of this article also appears on The Huffington Post

Vote!

Whatever your day looks like, 

whatever you are doing,

make sure you Vote! 

If you need reasons why, read my blog again or check out Seth Godin's.  If you are a woman and were thinking about staying home check out Style Substance and Soul for a refresher course on what women endured to earn the right or check out Gloria Feldt's take on why voting is a way for women to use their power and be heard.

And if you want a history lesson on Democracy told by a group of celebrity Greeks that will not only make you laugh, but make you vote and then check this out!

Getting Political

One of the great things about having your own blog is that you can do whatever you want with it. And if some days that means going a little off course from what you usually write about you can. So today with just a week away from the mid term elections that is what I am going to do. I am going to get political.

I'm not one of the ragers. I am not a doomsday predictor. I have said more than once here I am  the girl who looks at the glass as half full and I believe change is good, even if at times it is hard to get your arms around.

But the one thing that really does incite me is when I hear the predictions that people are just not going to vote this election. That they are going to sit this one out for a variety of pundit inspired reasons, from those who are just too disillusioned there hasn't been enough change to some who are being encouraged not to vote because they are told that will make a statement to those they might be angry at. And of course there are those who think their vote doesn't count. That no matter who they vote for things will stay the same.

In most corporate organizations, those mentalities would get you fired. Can you imagine telling your boss that you weren't even going to try and sell a client because you knew already they weren't going to buy?  Or that you weren't going to make any more cold calls because the economy is awful and no one is biting anyway? Or sitting around a conference table and when it came time for your opinion you said you were passing? That you didn't have any?

Or how about those Texas Rangers? The ones who are going to their first World Series? What if they had told their managers that they should just sit out the playoffs  because they always lost  and the Yankees were going to win anyway? That there wasn't any use in even getting up to bat?

I get especially incensed when I hear it is mostly women who are going to sit this election out.  In Gloria Feldt's new book, the #1 power tool she suggests for women is to know your history. With that let me remind the women reading this that the Declaration of Independence stated that "all men are created equal", The Constitution, which so many believe we need to enforce by the letter within which it was written, was the creation  of a bunch of white men and that women had to fight to earn the right to vote in 1920, less than one hundred years ago!

You can see how that enrages me for so many reasons, not the least of which is that I don't believe in all the predictions of low voter turnout.

What I do believe is that it is media hype. Something else to fill the 24/7 endless repetition of nothing that fills most cable news networks.  (Check out Seth Godin's blog for a non politically directed spin on what I am referring to.)

The majority of us are not political pundits with a blog or show to fill. We are not answering our phones when the pollsters call. And if we are under thirty chances are our only phone is a cell phone which completely eliminates us from the process.

Pardon me if this sounds too optimistic for many of you, but I am sensing that all that rage being spewed by the few with the microphones attached to their paychecks, has now spawned the anti-rage. Enthusiasm without the anger. Enthusiasm with sanity. Sort of along the lines of what Jon Stewart is organizing this Saturday. A Rally to Restore Sanity.

I don't profess to have all the answers to all the ills we are facing at the moment. But I do believe we are moving forward, albeit slowly. And I also believe everyone has a responsibility in that.  EVERYONE as in you and me.

Voting is one small action that lets your voice be heard. (If the pundits have turned you off so completely that you are uncertain the views of the candidates in your area check out this very cool non-partisan site, Project Vote Smart.)

I worked in advertising sales through more than one recession. We couldn't wait for someone else to do the work to make our budget. No matter how tough and unrealistic, EVERYONE had to do their part. No order was ever considered too small, which meant if you were a rookie with no list or a heavy hitter with a host of clients to cajole, you were expected to do your part and contribute. A $1000 order was as important as a $10,000 order in getting the team closer to the goal. No one got to sit out.

I've chosen to use my blog as my platform today because I am not sitting this election out. If I have convinced even one of you to vote that wasn't planning on it, I'll consider this a blog worth writing.  I'll be rallying on Saturday in Washington, DC because I want to support more sanity and get on with the job of getting things moving forward.  I'll be making calls encouraging others to do their part on Election Day, so if it's me who you hear on the phone, don't hang up!  Most importantly,  I'm  choosing to vote. The question is, will you?

This blog is being syndicated on Blogher