Blog the Vote!

I've made a deliberate choice to stay away from politics on this blog. While I have strong political convictions, my intent is for this blog to welcome every person who cares about reading to kids and developing literacy regardless of their political persuasion or any other persuasion for that fact.

So, when I read about the Blog the Vote effort organized by kidlitosphere bloggers, Lee Wind , Gregory K, and Colleen Mondor, I had to think long and hard about what I would say to keep the blog neutral. I think I have it.

This is why voting is important to me, and why, if you're eligible to vote, you should go out to the polls on Tuesday.

• 90 years ago, I wouldn't have been allowed to vote. I could have tried to convince my husband and other men to vote for the candidates I wanted to rule the nation, but I would not have had a voice. What I thought and felt wouldn't have mattered according to the laws set forth by our nation. So, I vote for my great grandmothers who weren't afforded this right, and for all of the people, especially the women who fought tooth and nail so that I can stand in line at the polls on Tuesday and cast my vote.
  

• I didn't vote until I was in my early 20s. I didn't think my vote really mattered, or that what was happening in Washington, DC didn't affect me. But then I saw the close race between Gore and Bush and realized that my vote DOES matter, that if all of the other apathetic people like me voted, it COULD make a difference, that the decisions made in Washington, DC DO affect me.
  

• Finally, I vote for all of the people in the world who can't. At the beginning of this decade, I taught ESL for a few years to high school and middle school students. I heard stories from these kids that were horrifying....personal stories of murder, death, and atrocities that NO person, let alone a child should have to bear first in real life and then in his/her memory. These stories still sometimes keep me awake at night, and more than ever, I realize that voting is a privilege that I will not take for granted.
  

I don't care whether you're Republican, Democrat, Independent, or even who you're voting for as long as you do it. If you have children, I encourage you to take them to the polls on Tuesday, to talk to them about the importance of voting, and to witness a crucial part of the democratic process first hand.


Visit all of the other Blog the Vote posts and even submit your own at Chasing Ray.