In a world which values the individual, individuals must value society
When bad things happen, there are two people to blame: those who committed the crime, and those who let it happen.
We live in a society now where each of us worries about ourselves, the crimes that are committed against us and how we feel about the world we inhabit. We are increasingly individualistic and selfish, caring less for our neighbors every day and feeling next to no remorse for the suffering happening all around us.
We see children in impoverished schools using outdated textbooks in overcrowded classrooms. Instead of attending a city hall meeting or writing to our congressperson to demand higher budgets, we shrug and say, “I’m happy I’m not in school anymore.”
We see homeless people on the streets with gum diseases, suffering from mental illness and a failing society, and we give them a dollar with a cheap smile. We walk on, proud of our good deed which will afford them the grand total of one cheeseburger at McDonalds.
We go about our lives, doing the bare minimum for others so that we can sleep sound at night. And if anyone dares to demand more of us, we become mad. “I go to work!” We say. “I earned what I have! It is not my fault these things are happening.”
We become defensive because deep down we know we’re not doing enough.
Instead of accepting that it is our duty to help the society we live in, we decide not to do anything. We say, “I can’t save the world. My vote doesn’t matter.”
We give up.
Voting is among the easiest things a person can do to make a difference, yet there are still millions who refuse to do it. By giving up on this simple action, non-voters are giving up on more than an abstract idea. They’re giving up on a better future.
They say, “My vote doesn’t count.” But every vote counts. A person needs only to look at history to understand why.
By 1774, the Boston Tea Party had demonstrated to the English Parliament that colonists would not sit idly by as their rights were taken advantage of. King George III was apt to say such rights were not rights but privileges — and any deviation from his rule would lead to swift punishment.
The Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts as a way to suppress protests and silence outrage. The forefathers of America were faced with new challenges. Merchandise was not allowed to be shipped, a martial law was passed and those who sought to speak against the government risked their lives to do so.
To try to preserve his nation’s power and reputation, the king abused his power and tried to squander the voice of the people.
But the united colonies, being committed to the rights and protests they had committed themselves to, refused to stand for such acts of “absolute tyranny.” By 1776, they changed their name to the United States of America, and set forth the fundamental rights by which all U.S. citizens would live by for centuries to come.
The right to vote was not something that came easy to those men. They had to fight for it. In doing so, they fought not for the abstract right to air their grievances, but to form a government which would represent the people justly.
Women suffered the same issue years later when they took on the suffragette mantel. They protested, held lectures, wrote to their congressmen, lobbied and marched. Many went on hunger strikes and held silent vigils.
But for all this, they were still imprisoned and beaten in domestic violence cases for speaking up. It was viewed as altogether unfit for them to have the same rights as men.
Women did not earn the right to vote until 1919. Since then, the presence of female voters has led to an increase in women in the workplace, Congress and the Supreme Court. Laws cater more broadly to include the rights of women, which were previously judged solely by men.
While laws were passed in 1869 to give black people the right to vote, the U.S. placed many obstacles in the way to sabotage the practice. It was not until 1965 that the Voting Rights Act was passed to ensure that black people could vote as easily as white people.
“The black vote,” as it is so often referred to, continues to be one of the largest factors in a candidate’s run for office.
The right to vote is not a privilege. It is not something that can be given or taken at will. Nor is it a passive event a person does on an afternoon when they have nothing better to do. The right to vote is, by its essence, a duty to serve one’s community and nation. We do not vote simply for ourselves, but for those things which can better society overall.
A common phrase says, “those who do not vote do not have the right to complain.”
It is even more true that those who complain have a duty to vote; because by complaining, a person acknowledges there is a problem. And if there is a problem, as there always is, the worst thing anyone could do is to do nothing.