YOUR VOTE - A SOVEREIGN RIGHT

With our planet spinning away on its axis we appear to be confronting a growing number of very complex issues that threaten our nation’s sovereignty. I need not list the multitude of difficult challenges we are facing, because every one of us has different priorities.

In reading my American Patriot’s Almanac I was drawn to the magnificent words of President Calvin Coolidge who took to the radio back in 1924 to remind Americans of a solemn duty, “All the opportunity for self-government through the rule of the people depends upon one single factor. That is the ballot box…The people of our country are sovereign. If they do not vote they abdicate that sovereignty, and they may be entirely sure that if they relinquish it other forces will seize it, and if they fail to govern themselves some other power will rise up to govern them. The choice is always before them, whether they will be slaves or whether they will be free. The only way to be free is to exercise actively and energetically the privileges and discharge faithfully the duties which make freedom. It is not to be secured by passive resistance. It is the result of energy and action…”

“Persons who have the right to vote are trustees of the benefit of their country and their countrymen. They have no right to say they do not care. They must care! They must remember that their country and their countrymen cannot get along, cannot remain sound, cannot preserve its institutions, cannot protect its citizens, cannot maintain its place in the world unless those who have the right to vote do sustain and do guide the course of public affairs by the thoughtful exercise of that right on election day."

It is a proven fact that citizens of our country consistently register low voting percentages compared to other countries who share the cherished right to vote. Apparently our fellow Americans are just too complacent, smug, or apathetic and that just may be the principal causal factor for the perilous condition of our democracy. Millions have given their lives for the privilege to vote, so why would anyone want to ignore the opportunity to participate in our governance. Sometimes I just scratch my head, because I cannot understand the actions of my fellow Americans when it comes to the ballot box.

Please remember these words in next November, whatever your party affiliation.

COMMANDER GRANGER