With the Presidential Election being tomorrow, I have so many emotions going on through-out my body that I am not totally sure how to deal with. one minute I go from being optimistic about the outcome of the election from the next minute being a total mess and praying for mercy on my soul because Donald Trump might really be the President of the United States. So instead of punching someone who wears a shirt saying not to vote to school or instead of eating four thousand chocolate bars to make myself feel better, I will Ramble.
My first interaction of the day was on the way to school this morning with my sister. We were listening to the Breakfast Club on the radio, which consists of DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlemagne the God. They were discussing the importance of people going out to vote tomorrow so that their voices could be heard. They opened the phone lines for people to call in and share their opinion with them over the radio to answer the question, "Are you voting and if you are not voting, why not". Of course people called in and said that they were not voting, which is their right. Charlemagne, much like me, was interested in their reasons for not voting so he asked "why not" and the answers were basically a range of:"my vote does not count", "I refuse to vote for the 'lesser of two evils'", "the world is ending" and "voting does not help". All of which frustrated me, some more than others. The entire belief or idea in voting is for your voice to be heard because this is a democracy, and in a democracy elected officials are in-fact ELECTED by the people and should represent the people. So when you opt out of voting you are basically giving up your right to vote and essentially giving up your right to voice your opinion in discussions about politics.
Once I arrived to school this morning, I thought maybe because I attend an HBCU my experience and talks about the election would be different. Hillary Clinton voiced that if she was elected as the next President of The United States that she was going to donate millions of dollars to HBCUs to help fund some positive changes, so I thought everyone would come to the winning team in the hopes that now they see something that will effect them directly. Yet, I was surprisingly mistaken. The voter apathy voiced within my classroom made my stomach turn, my head bang and my eyes water. To say that my ancestors fought so hard for me to get the right to vote. My grandparents (yes people, the civil rights movement was not that long ago) went through segregation and that minorities are still not being treated as an equal an makes me ill. So giving up a right that many people fought hard for, just based on that simple fact is frustrating. This not only concerns me on a National election level but just on a state-wide level, we have a grand wizard of the KKK running for Senate in the state of Louisiana and people are not going out to vote. There is no excuse and the apathetic ideals being shared should make you embarrassed, afraid and just physically ill.
I feel sick, and so should you. A nation that should embrace people from all lands and backgrounds has someone running for President who refuses to even try and relate to people on the basic level of being humans. Instead of progressing as the great nation that we are said to be, we are going to regress into a nation that he believes is 'Great'.
The only cure to my election illness is for my peers, friends, family and fellow Americans to go out and VOTE! Vote like your life depends on it and be proud of it.
In my closing remarks I have a few ideas that everyone should consider for election day tomorrow:
1. When has America ever been Great? Was it during the Great Depression? Segregation? World Wars? Revolutions?
2. By not voting, what do you have to lose? Locally? State-Wide, Nationally and Inter-nationally?
3. By not voting, or voting for a candidate that has no chance of winning, who are you giving your vote to?
And finally, for those who still will not go and vote, consider these quotes:
"Our Lives begin to end the day that we become silent about things that matter"- Dr. MLK Jr.
"Bad officials are elected by good people who don't vote" -George Jean Nathan
"Nobody will ever deprive the American people from the right to vote but the American people themselves and the only way they can do this is by not voting" -FDR
