The year is 2072. You’re standing in line for your daily ration of animal crackers and Gatorade when you see a commotion out of the corner of your eye. You look over to see two guards pull a guy out of line to beat him with nunchucks because he cut.
You turn back to face the front of the line. Everyone told him no cuttsies, but he didn’t listen.
In this hypothetical nightmare, nunchuck-wielding guards and cookie rations have been an everyday reality for the citizens of the U.S. ever since Lichtenstein overthrew North America. Last you can recall, it happened about 50 years ago when a weak administration failed to successfully negotiate an arms treaty with Lichtenstein. Because of that, American football is but a memory and wearing lederhosen with your Chacos is the latest fad.
Now all of you are thinking is, “I wish I had voted that year instead of staying home surfing Pinterest and making fork bracelets.”
OK, that may be a bit extreme. Lichtenstein is actually a principality in Europe roughly 62 square miles in size with a population slightly larger than that of Searcy. They aren’t going to be overthrowing anybody anytime soon.
The moral of this story is, you need to vote.
It’s not just highly encouraged or gravely important. You are an American citizen, and it is your job and duty to vote in all elections. Emphasis on all. How your government runs and who is in office affects you. Do you like having paved roads, clean water, safe restaurants? Then it is your responsibility to vote. Plain and simple.
The Preamble to the Constitution states, “We the people,” not, “I, Madison and all my cronies.”
We the people. As in all of us — it takes every single vote to run a country. Those “bureaucrats in Washington” work for us, the people. We all know the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” from the Declaration of Independence. But the document does not stop there.
The next line in the Declaration states, “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Consent of the governed. That’s us. That is you, me and the kid who sits beside you in chapel. Voting is one of the constitutional rights given to us. Use it wisely and use it every time you have the opportunity to do so.
Next time you tell yourself it is not that important to vote or that your vote will not matter, remember this: According to Fox News, Mitt Romney won the Iowa Caucus last month by eight votes. Those eight people mattered very much.
Just last year, according to The Washington Post, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia granted women the right to vote. A right that has been such a long time coming for the Middle East is one we casually discard here in America. Do not let such an important right pass you by.
In the upcoming elections, remember that you are free only because someone died to make you free.
Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We did not pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
The best way to protect your freedom is to vote. You have been given a huge blessing. Now take some responsibility for that blessing.
