Maybe We've Made Voting All Too Convenient!

 

Did you remember voting in person on an actual Election Day?
Did you have to go through some trouble?
Was it crowded or difficult finding a parking place? Did you have to battle inclement weather? Did you have to wait in line? Were you inconvenienced?
Good!
Because maybe this reminds you that voting is a right and a privilege granted to all eligible citizens but it is also a treasured responsibility -- even an obligation!
Was it easy for our nation's Founding Fathers who put their sacred honor on the line to declare our independence and form this country? Was that easy?
Was it easy for those who fought in the revolutionary war or the civil war or the two world wars or the Vietnam war of the gulf war? Was it easy for any of them who fought to save our democracy and guarantee our rights? Was that easy?
Was it easy for those who crossed this country in wagon trains to settle the land?
Was it easy for those who risked it all to come to this country legally and assimilate and make a new life?
Was it easy for the people who went into the mines or built the skyscrapers or discovered the cure for diseases or farmed the fields or went into space or brought forth new inventions or made products that changed our way of life and made us the envy of the world? Was any of that easy?
No, it wasn't. And so, voting should not be easy.
It should not be a common convenience.
It's not like breezing through the drive through or commanding Siri or posting on Instagram or accessing Amazon. And it shouldn't be like any of that.
Because that's not what voting's all about.
You should have to think about voting and you should have to do something -- something demonstrative -- to vote. Voting involves a conscious decision and the public, participatory manifestation of that decision.
When voting becomes a common convenience (and this is now all too prevalent) like brushing your teeth or popping a couple of slices into the toaster then we're headed in the wrong direction and we're losing the very meaning of the act.
Voting is serious.
Voting is consequential.
Going to vote should be like entering a civil cathedral and professing your commitment to responsible citizenship.
Voting is sacred!