I apologize for the lateness of this blog- I had every intention of doing it every day for the last 7 days and had terrible writers blog- I blame it on the horrible week that last week was. In any event, the recent protests in down town San Jose have inspired my thoughts on political participation; not that these thoughts are ever far from my mind with my thought provoking major.
Living in downtown San Jose is scary enough for a petite blonde with no street cred- but when protests occur, my fear factor rises. I am all for passion and wanting change. Actually, I love it. Something that I have always admired about Americans is their ability to gather as a collective voice and evoke the change which they want to see. This past week in San Jose protestors have been camped outside of city hall for "Occupy Wall Street" a protest in agreement with similar ones around the country; showing a ssense of solidarity towards on another about the injustices which they believe are occurring on Wall Street and in our banks. Truthfully, I have no feelings about the protest- but I do appreciate the efforts which these passionate citizens are putting forth.
When I was 12, My Uncle Michael came to visit our family and he was talking about voting. Obviously at this point I couldn't vote and my political knowledge was limited to elementary school history classes. He said something about voting which I will never forget, "If you want to bitch about something you have to vote".. very very wise words. For a long time I didn't really understand what this meant but now I completely agree with his thought. I now vote whenever I can and will go out of my way to go home to do so. I LOVE voting. I don't see why any American wouldn't take advantage of such an important opportunity. So many people get caught up with their own issues that they avoid politics, or don't see why another vote matters. EVERY vote counts! If you aren't willing to take 15 minutes out of your day (once every few years in fact) to vote for those people who make critical decisions about the future of our nation then you have no right to complain about anything political. I have never heard an excuse which I considered to be valid about why someone won't vote.
Sometimes I think that I am too politically opinionated but I see no reason not to be. Voting isn't the only way to show a person's feelings on a political issue. Two years ago I got up at 5 am with two of my sorority sisters to venture up to Sacramento to march for higher eduction. I didn't really know what to expect; so when we arrived in Sacramento to a field full of charter busses from public universities all over California I became really excited. We spent the day rallying around the capital, peacefully expressing our desire as real life students to have better funding for CSUs. Even though I really don't care to continuously fight for more CSU funding, this was an amazing experience and I fully support this movement.
I am so tired of people complaining about political issues whilst still being to lazy to write a letter or participate in a movement. It is so easy to help make a change in this country and we as Americans are so fortunate to have our freedoms and liberties; why not use them?!?!
GONE VOTING =]
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