Those We Leave Behind

Everyone doesn't want to vote.

This is a fact I have to accept after almost a year of trying to get people registered. Most of the people I have come in contact with...especially the young people...are gleeful at the opportunity to participate in the upcoming election. However, every now and then there is someone who just doesn't want to vote. Some would argue that there are certain people who 'shouldn't' vote....but that goes against everything we believe in and fight for in this country.

Of course, I want people to vote for my candidate, however....even if they vote for the other guy... at least they ARE voting and exercising their rights as Americans. Rights many died for....

Recently, at a community fair I attended, a middle-aged woman came over to the booth I was manning to register voters. "Are you registered to vote?" (I asked everyone who came near us this same question.) "No," she said. "I don't believe in voting. I haven't voted since my daughter was 3 months old and she's 30 now!" My first thought was "What the heck happened 30 years ago that turned this woman against voting?"

But, I tried again....since she was still standing there looking over the literature. "You can register right here and now, and vote in the November election," I told her.

"No, she said. "I'll never vote again. My vote won't make a difference....it's a waste of time."

I couldn't believe or understand her thought pattern. As an African-American woman surely she understood that people had given their lives so that SHE COULD VOTE!

I wanted to give her an oral dissertation on the civil rights movement and why she MUST vote....but,I don't think it would have made a difference. The people around me just shook their heads.

I guess as we move forward as a country, there will be those we will have to leave behind....not because we want to leave them...but, because they don't want to go.