On Getting Out the Vote--Your Own That Is!

I recently visited Philadelphia.  It was a short stay, barely twenty-four hours.  So I didn't get to the Museum of Art.  I didn't run up and down the "Rocky" steps.  And I didn't have a cheese steak.  (My doctor would approve!)  But I did spend some time in the Historic District.

Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are always a real thrill--but the highlight of the visit for me was the National Constitution Center.  In the main exhibit hall, the Center has a masterful display called the Chronology Wall. In many different parts, it traces the history of our nation, and the ongoing struggle for the various rights we enjoy as Americans.  One especially intriguing part of the exhibit were several interactive stations where you could answer a series of questions, hit a button, and discover if you would have been eligible to vote at that particular time in history.  The questions included things like "Are you male?"   "Are you a property owner?"  "Are you white?"

As I explored the exhibit there were two children just ahead of me, a little boy and a little girl.  As they stood in front of a display marking the late nineteenth century, the little girl, who was probably six or seven, entered answers in the interactive part of the exhibit.  When the results came up, she placed her little hands on her hips and said, rather indignantly, "What?  Women can't vote yet?"

We tend to forget that the right to vote was not granted all adult Americans right from the start.  We tend to forget that it has taken many, many struggles to extend the franchise to most of our citizens.  It is a hard won right and honor to vote.  Yet in any given election, a significant number of us fail to go to the polls, fail to exercise that right.  Sometimes only a tiny minority of voters pull a lever or mark a ballot.

In this time of conventions, in this season of campaigning, one can easily fall into a sense of despair and frustration about politics and parties and politicians.  But if you don't vote, you can't change anything.  That's how the system works--but only if you are willing to work it!

I have a suggestion:  this year, let's make it a rule, if you don't vote, you can't complain.  Either way it strikes me that it would make the world a bit better!