Voting Duty

Tonight, on the eve of this historic election -- historic in some good ways but mostly bad ones -- I am going to post something I came across today that I find significant. The words are not mine; this is a passage from a November 3, 1924, part of a radio address from President Calvin Coolidge regarding the civic duty of Americans to vote. While I don't agree with mandates requiring citizens to vote, I do truly believe we all have a responsibility to vote, not just to feel like part of the fabric of our society but also to honor everyone who has fought for our right to do so. I'll step off my soapbox now and leave you with the wise words of Calvin Coolidge, as relevant today as they were nearly a hundred years ago.

"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 for the benefit of their country and their countrymen. They have no right to say they do not care. They must care! They have no right to say that whatever the result of the election they can get along. 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."