It’s not quite the homestretch but the corner we turn is in sight.
In barely more than one month voters will have an opportunity to shape the immediate and long-term future of their community, their country and, to a small degree, the world. The influence may be minimal but it still exists.
If history is a good teacher, and it generally is, voter turnout will be minimal. Americans of late don’t exercise their right to vote in large numbers. The apathy doubles in scope during gubernatorial races, when the glamor of electing a governor is not as appealing as the razzle dazzle of voting for someone to reside in the White House.
Those who sit on the sidelines will miss an opportunity to start making this country great. Not great again, but great for the first time.
There have been moments in this country’s young history that vaulted it well above mediocrity, its contributions to space exploration, technology and ending world wars come immediately to mind. But even during those episodes there were faults and ugliness that prevented the United States from achieving its full potential.
It was not until after World War I came to a halt in 1918 that women in the United States were granted a constitutional right to vote in 1920. That was long after this country had been founded and mothers, wives and daughters watched their beloved husbands and sons die in the first Great War and before that the Civil War. That conflict, as we learned in school, came about as a result of this country’s shameful embracing of slavery, when black people were regarded as animals and beasts of burden.
World War II came about and it was during this country’s noble effort to eradicate hatred and racism embodied in Adolph Hitler that we sent Japanese Americans to internment camps because the government feared they were enemies living within. It was an episode resembling this country’s history of ripping apart Native American families and tossing them onto reservations and forcing them into boarding schools for re-education.
The ’60s showed us that while everyone had the right to vote, not everyone was treated equally and black Americans were routinely mistreated and beaten as they fought for the simple right of eating, sitting and living in the same places their white neighbors did. Today, under the current president, racists and bigots are emboldened to act on their most ignorant instincts.
In addition to racial and gender equality, my definition of a great country includes one that provides affordable healthcare for everyone, a program that does not require the ailing to decide between healing and eating; a great country is one that is first in the world in teaching its students to be proper caretakers of each other and the world; a country where we see each other as people worthy of dignity and respect rather than as consumers and brands to be exploited.
We have had fleeting moments of greatness but we are far from being a great nation.
Voting could be one step to changing that.
