As you may know, one of my team members at work recently became an American citizen. He and I have engaged in various political discussions for the short time I have known him, and I suppose he uses these talks to learn more about the political process. I am flattered that he would think my experience in the field is worth listening to, but I sometimes wonder what his take on all of this is. I tend to go a bit off at times standing on my soapbox, as my husband is so fond of saying, but is rather refreshing to be able to talk about this stuff to someone who is so eager to learn.
He is not able to vote quite yet basically because of timing. He gained his citizenship after the deadline for registering for this election. It is a pity, because I think it would probably be really cool that his first voting experience is in a big, high profile, Presidential election that we had. But I am so impressed that he wants to vote while so many don’t. So many don’t care about the direction this country moves in, and so many don’t think about where their local municipalities are going. If you look at the numbers of citizens versus the number of registered voters, it is quite alarming to think that basically a third of this country actually takes the time to have their voices heard, and that’s just in a Presidential election. Despite the fact there are two Election Days in a year, far less vote in what they call “off-cycle” elections - but I digress.
This week we had Election Day, and I hope you exercised your civic duty and voted. Whether you stood in a long line to do so, you took your time and did your duty. But don’t stop there. Exercise your civic duty as often as you can and pay attention to those people who are your public servants. Make sure they are doing what you think they should. After all, you are living in a country where you can.
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