 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
|
||
|
||||
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
St. Election's DayNovember 07, 2006
By all means, if you find someone or something worth encouraging, vote for her, him, or it. Me, I'm sitting this one out. Some people think this is a big deal. I don't. I'm not voting for pretty much the same reason I don't go to professional ballgames: I like my sports grassroots and participatory, and neither my mind nor my muscles benefit from watching people run around because they're getting paid big bucks to do it. I'm not voting for the same reason that when I go into a store and they don't have what I'm looking for or an acceptable substitute, I walk out empty-handed. I'm not voting for the same reason that I don't go to church on Sunday: I don't believe in the religion, so the rituals and the prayers hold only intellectual interest. (If we customarily sang at the polls in my town, however, I'd be down there most of the day.) I know quite a few people who attend services regularly and are otherwise active in church or temple. I don't consider them weird because they do so, and they (as far as I know) don't consider me damned because I don't. Most of us claim to honor diversity; religious intolerance is a thing of the past, at least where we live, so we believe. When I tell people I'm not voting, and that I'm not currently registered to vote, I wonder. Many are surprised. A few are curious. Some start sputtering as soon as the shock wears off. If they had the power, I'm pretty sure I'd've been put in the stocks -- if not on the rack -- long before now. These are tolerant people, mind you. They celebrate diversity. They pride themselves on their ability to reason, and they profess to not understand fanaticism, religious or otherwise. Most of them have no illusions whatsoever about who's running for office or how they get chosen or what they're likely to do if elected, but when I say I'm not voting not because I forgot or don't care but because I choose not to, they're disturbed. They do not approve. Hardly anyone's ever reacted this way when I said I was a lesbian. I've crossed a line. I'm violating a taboo. I point out that the market economy turns everything into a commodity, and that candidates are packaged as surely as pop music, SUVs, designer water, and Doritos. I say that it's no coincidence that the word "campaign" is applied to advertising, politics, and war. I ask if it's possible to be an "informed voter" when trustworthy information is so hard to come by. They concede or at least acknowledge the validity of my points, then it's "But still -- you should vote." They're saying I should take it on faith. But I don't. Thanks to Bronwyn for sending me the postcard. Now it really does have my name on it! |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
 |
|
|||
 |
|
|||
Home - Writing - Editing - About Susanna - Bloggery - Articles - Poems - Contact Copyright ©
Susanna J. Sturgis. All rights reserved. |
||||
