Why Bother Voting?

WHY VOTE?
Around this time, we’re bombarded with posts reminding us that we must vote. We get lists of “one-vote wins” that boggle our minds. We are wowed with one-vote tales.
None of them are true. So why do people send out these falsities? Why go to all that trouble, when in actuality, one vote has less of a chance of making a difference than you have of winning the Powerball Lottery? No, Adolf Hitler was not elected by one vote. No, we never even had a vote to determine whether we would speak German or English in the US. Look it all up. One vote is not that much of a deciding factor.
So why bother trying to convince people? Why bother voting?
BECAUSE, damn it.
Because people suffered horribly to give you the right to vote. This is especially true for women. Most women today have no idea what our female ancestors went through to bring us our right to vote. Women (and a few great men) fought for ONE HUNDRED YEARS for voting rights. They were imprisoned, tortured, force-fed, and a myriad of other physical injustices, to say nothing of the slander and public ridicule they endured.
They did this because they knew that alone, we might not produce much of a voice. But TOGETHER, we are a bellow that can be heard across the globe.
So do it, already. Just get up, find the ridiculously-easy-to-find location where you can cast your ballot, and DO IT. Not because one vote counts, not because it alone might make a difference, not because you want one candidate over another (everyone knows no one wants any of them) but because if you don’t vote, it means you don’t care that so very many people in your past risked life, reputation, and health to bring you this right. And because when your voice is multiplied, when one vote becomes a thousand – that’s when you make your mark.
What you are proving when you walk into that office or library or supermarket and make your way to the machine that will accept your opinion is that you are WORTHY of all of the work and sacrifice that came before you. Because you are not taking it for granted.
You are going to make your voice heard.
So go vote already. It takes five minutes. I think it literally took me three. Just do it.
Make your ancestors proud. And make yourself a little proud too.
– HKW

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