Quantcast


Advertisement

Keeping the Faith

Email | Print | Text - Text +

November 2, 2010 | 6:44 am

Election Day:  Why I Don’t Vote, Why You Should & Missing Tim Russert

Posted by Ilana Angel

Photo

I do not vote because I am not an American citizen.  I am Canadian who lives and works in the United States with a Permanent Resident Alien Card.  I’m not sure why I’ve never applied for citizenship.  No reason really.  At this point my green card expires the same year my son turns 18 so I figured I would wait until then, and we could both vote for the first time together.  It’s a sweet thought, but also totally lame.

I considered myself a Democrat for a long time, and living in California, a predominately Democratic state, I never felt an urgency to vote.  My vote was not going to make a difference was my thought, which is utterly ridiculous.  Every single vote matters, and if I am going to live here, pay taxes, and suffer through the economic crisis, my vote not only matters, but is important and should be counted.

Over the years I have become more of an Independent.  I think there are scary choices from both the Republican and Democrat side.  I think there is also promise from both sides.  When I vote, and one day I will have the privilege to do so, I will not vote along political lines, as much I will vote for people who can restore our country to it’s glory.  To vote for an idiot, just because he is a member of my party, is idiotic.

I love watching election coverage on television.  I miss Tim Russert, may he rest in peace.  He was brilliant at political correspondence and always explained things in a way I not only understood, but could also hold my own in a discussion about it.  I have not found someone as good as Mr. Russert to walk me through these elections.  With ads and debates focused on lies and hate, I miss having Tim here to break it all down.

Voting is an honor.  Every single vote counts.  By “counts” of course I mean unless there is a hanging chad, in which case your vote doesn’t mean squat.  I have lived in the United States for almost twenty years.  My son is here, and these elections will affect his life too.  It is my obligation as a mother to make the world a safe place for him to grow up in, so not voting means I am not doing all I can ensure my child has a good life.

Election Day is an opportunity for the average person to make a difference.  The country is a mess, and while we can blame a lot of different people for getting us to this place, if you don’t vote, part of the blame falls on you.  I am blessed to live in the United States of America and while I am not allowed to vote, I appreciate all of you who do.  Make time today to have your voice heard.  As for who you vote for, I’m keeping the faith.

4 Comments — Leave your comment

Share this post: del.icio.us Favicondel.icio.us Digg FaviconDigg Facebook FaviconFacebook Google FaviconGoogle Reddit FaviconReddit StumbleUpon FaviconStumbleUpon Technorati FaviconTechnorati YahooMyWeb FaviconYahooMyWeb

COMMENTS

We welcome your feedback. Comments may not exceed 1000 characters.

Privacy Policy

Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

Terms of Service

JewishJournal.com has rules for its commenting community.Get all the details.

I LOVE to vote.  I am proud to be an American.  I am proud of my country. But I hate politicians!!  It seems nowadays the politicans care about spending more money we don’t have.  I would love to see an average person with common sense be in office. Someone who has a real job. No more career politicans.

Comment by Dawn on 11/02/10 at 1:37 pm

I agree with Dawn.  A little common sense would go a long way.  I just don’t think many politicians can really relate to the everyday problems we face as regular people. And somethimes I get the feeling that they just really don’t care (at least not once they get elected…they care lots while they’re campaigning).

Comment by Kathy on 11/02/10 at 3:53 pm

ilana,
i remember the year my husband and i registried to vote for the first time. it was 1984, the year our son was born, we felt we were voting for him to improve and better his future.
this post has nothing to do with the election, voting or the campaign that year, but just trying to get the registration forms.
i had no i idea on how, where, what or who to ask about the procees on voting, my husband said there was paper work at the post office. so i packed my son up in the car to head off to the post office…
wait i need to tell you this first; this was the tenth town or address i had lived in, in seven years. so when i wasn’t working, i was pregnant, so with that said. i didn’t really know this area let alone the distance between point ‘a’ and point ‘b’ (‘a’ being our address and ‘b’ being the post office). well, i ended up going to ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘e’ and ‘f’ before i found ‘b’~~~so, yes i got lost. so here i was with my son fast asleep in the back seat by now, when after i finally found the post office that was less than ‘one’ mile from our apartment but took me over 45 minutes to find. i should have walked to it!!
so i had to wake my, now crying baby, in tow, inside the post office looking for registrier forms. i spotted forms with red, white and blue on the display, so i grabbed a hand full of papers and took my 45 minute drive home.
i pinky swore with my son that i would never tell his dad about our day if he promised he wouldn’t tell either. i looked a those little fat cheeks and deep brown eyes that just seemed to understand our secret as he grinned back at me.
well, when my husband came home from work and took one look at the papers i spent an hour and a half to get he ask: “do you have other plans that we need to discuss? these are armed forces registration forms”.
i’m just sayin’...
(o.m.g.)
by the way, my sons pinky swear meant nothing, he sold me up the river and cried like a baby…

Comment by zero milligrams (o.m.g.) on 11/03/10 at 11:11 am

I love to vote too, I have missed only 1 Presidential election so far and it was because the polls closed too early for a new mother to leave work, get her baby, and get to the polling place…however since that inauspicious start, I have taken my son and now daughter to vote with me , and they are 14 and 12.  I want them to know who I am voting for and why, and I want them to appreciate the voice they have in deciding who leads their country, state and in our case, township.  I think the ONLY good that has come of all the fighting and negativity in the recent elections, is that more and more people seem to take this right to heart, and are voting more consistently.

Comment by tracy on 11/04/10 at 6:44 pm

Post a Comment

Name:  
Email:  

Type the word you see below:

Comment:


About this Blog

Blog Home
About the Blogger(s)
Contact

RSS




Blog Archive






Newspaper

Serving a community of 600,000, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles is the largest Jewish weekly outside New York City. Our award-winning paper reaches over 150,000 educated, involved and affluent readers each week. Subscribe here.

© Copyright 2012 Tribe Media Corp.
All rights reserved. JewishJournal.com is hosted by Nexcess.net. Homepage design by Koret Communications.
Widgets by Mijits. Site construction by Hop Studios.

counter fake hit page