Why vote? Why bother? It won't make any difference... This is the voice of apathy. This is the voice that we have all heard far too often lately. This is the voice that will allow others to take away our freedom! If we listen to this voice we disempower ourselves and leave our fates, and those of our children, in the hands of people who are determined to force their views on the world. Organizations like the American Family Association and similar conservative Christian organizations have agendas that include censorship, religion as part of education, and the breakdown of the separation of church and state. They encourage their respective memberships to vote for legislation that they help craft to forward their agendas.
To complicate the issue, we have Legislators on both state and federal levels who have no concern for the needs of those who don't fit into their target demographic (i.e. upper middle class non-minority mainstream religious types). The only way that we can force these legislators to pay attention to every group is to come out in strength when they propose changes that are not for the good of all.
Here in Massachusetts, we recently had an issue with one of the gubernatorial candidates. He won the election, and now sits in office despite his blatant disregard for the concerns of minorities. Did this happen because nobody was aware of his opinion. Did he slip into office only to have this come out later. No. Gov. Paul Cellucci sits in office because the ad that showed his true feelings about minorities aired two days after the closure of voter registration. Many people wanted to vote against, but were ineligible because they had not bothered to register. His victory was a close thing, winning by only 2 or 3 percent. If those who could not vote had cast off their apathy sooner, we would have a governor in office with a record of supporting minorty needs. For now, we can only look at this as a lesson and remember:
Apathy leads to the destruction of freedom!
