48 years of voting - a personal history - October 19, 2020

I am the grandson of naturalized citizens, who, I am sure, relished the freedom to exercise their right to vote. 

 I think I have a memory of joining my dad at the polls at least once.   

  My elementary school was a polling station.  In November, 1964, I remember a few of us on the playground asking a man, who had just emerged from the station, whom he voted for. 

  “GOLDWATER!”  He exclaimed. 

  “Not Johnson?”   We asked. 

   “GOLDWATER” he repeated. 

  I remember my Junior High School holding an assembly at which representatives of the Humphrey and Nixon Campaigns spoke.   Speaking for Humphrey was Richard Bolling, the Congressional Representative from our district.  We were about to hold a school-wide “election” for president a few days later.  Nixon won, by the way.  

   I remember waiting at the Urbana, Illinois town hall to register to vote in the 1972 election.   I believe I had to go back there to vote on Election Day.  My candidate lost.   Oh, and, by the way, my draft number at 105, at a time when there were no college deferments.   The peace talks in January of 1973 led to the end of the draft.  

     Four years later, I completed my absentee ballot (as a registered voter in Missouri) for the 1976 election at the United States Consulate in East Jerusalem.   

     Since then, I have voted in Ohio, Kansas, New Hampshire and New Mexico.    

    It’s not only about whom we support.   It IS about making sure that everyone has the right to register their choice, which is, unfortunately, contrary to the views of some who would term certain modes of voting as “rigged,” “illegal” and “fraudulent, or who would be surprised if their opponent wins because they think that person is a “loser” or the “worst candidate ever.”  

    Of course, if you have heard those words, and agree with them, then vote, and, please, speak your mind respectfully without the vitriol.  

   If you have heard other expressions that elevate respect and bi-partisanship over ridicule, then vote.   

   Just, simply, because you are a registered voter, vote.    Don’t ever sit it out.  And don’t believe anyone who says your vote won’t count or that it won’t be counted.    It will.  Or, at least, vote as if it will count, because it SHOULD count.   

   Many of us have voted already, so please join the club.    

   It is probably the most American thing you can do...ever.