Sedentary Travelogue #13: Vote!

It's amazing how easy it is to not vote. Most citizens of the USA don't do it. I used to have an essay up on my old website (I'll have to dig around and see if I can find it) about the need to build a culture around being a democracy. I personally think that coming of voting age should be considered a major milestone in every young American's life. It's worthy of celebration! In this age where so many people lack any sort of rite of initiation into adulthood, here is a golden opportunity missed.

What does it take for our country to be truly democratic? What does it take for us to become actual participants in our own governance?

Of course, voting isn't the whole shebang. What's scary about low voter turn out is that voting is the easy part. Really engaging in participatory democracy means knowing about your own world and being active throughout the year, not just around elections. So much of governance happens outside of the things we vote on.

This is old news to anyone I'm writing to, of course, but if you'll forgive my ranting there are a few things I've been thinking about on this topic lately.

American politics are too big for most of us to feel we have an effect on. At the national level, how can any of us make a difference? Of course part of the answer to this is to focus on smaller local issues. There is no question that one person can have an impact on state level politics. That's not to be scoffed at! Our states often compare in size to European countries! And of course municipal or county politics are well within our grasp.

But I think there is a deeper impediment here and it's something that life at Dancing Rabbit has really driven home to me. People often have the feeling that politics are somehow this distinct other realm of our lives that one can ignore or struggle with or work against or whatever. This is part of the problem of trying to deal with politics at the national level here -- it seems so removed from daily life. Of course, it isn't.

Your friend struggling with depression. Your relative with cancer. Your colleague in debt. Your nephew having problems at school. This is what politics is about. It affects your life and the lives of those around you.

I am not saying that to be involved in politics is about creating legislation to give funds to depression research nor alleviate debt necessarily. Our lives are made up of many varied factors that create the very real, human conditions of our lives. To be politically aware and active is to be aware and active in the conditions of your own life.

For example, your relative dealing with cancer may have gotten it from living within range of the waste incinerators south of Chicago. Or maybe your colleague is in debt because of living in social isolation and not having anyone but an overpriced credit card to turn to when they got behind in their bills. Perhaps there are efforts afoot in the town council, or in your neighborhood's block or at your church to create more social bonding in your area. It may seem unrelated -- it may BE unrelated -- but it also might be the exact factor that will prevent more economic hardship for the people in your world.

Obviously, politics is not just about legislature and elected positions. It's about being involved in the world around you. If you do not know the people who live by you, why should you care? You cannot know how relevant all of the "issues" are to your own life unless you are working to make connections and be connected and understand the people around you.

Hmmm... this all seems like a snotty diatribe or something. That's not what I intended to write. But it's all heartfelt and what's on my mind anyway. And besides, I'm short on time and I've already written it. So I'll send it out.

Finally, I'll make a plug in the national elections since I'm writing to you all anyway. Vote Nader if you can. Vote Gore if you must. Hell, Vote Bush if you must, though I'd shudder to imagine what you'd be thinking. Please make sure you vote. Winona LaDuke, Nader's running mate, is a Native American environmental activist and mother. I saw her speak in 96 at Northwestern. She spoke about how her activism is not a separate career from her home life and work as a mother. Rather she saw them as the same job. She felt she had to be involved in the world around her in order to be fulfilling her role as a mother, fulfilling her role as a friend to all the people she knows, and fulfilliner her own self of involvement in her life. She is bright, articulate and yet talks directly without that feeling of being hidden behind her thought out speeches. She clearly was speaking from her heart. From her self.

She doesn't have a chance in hell of being the Vice President this year. But can you imagine a US where she was?

Try.

with love and respect,
Jacob

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