Vote in Their Memory If for No Other Reason

Who are you going to vote for in the big election?
What’s that you said? You aren’t going to vote because it won’t make any difference?
If that’s the way you truly feel, it is really sad. Maybe you will reconsider.
If you are totally turned off by the mudslinging, half-truths about lowering taxes and who is to blame for rising sums, and insidious polls that show this candidate up a point and that one down two points, I must agree it is disheartening.
In light of all that ugliness, would you please cast your vote simply for the memory of all those fellow Americans whose names are inscribed on the Wildwood Vietnam Veterans Wall on Ocean Avenue? Forget Democrat or Republican, or Independent or Libertarian, if you don’t respect the candidates, then go to the polls with that Wildwood monument in mind. Those men and women did not die Republicans or Democrats, Independents or Socialists; they died to defend a cause that allows you, the voter, the right to a secret ballot for those who will govern you.
To refuse to vote is to literally spit in their faces and say, “You died for nothing, because I don’t think it’s worth voting.”
It would be very interesting to ask the 694,193 naturalized citizens in 2011 if they plan to vote. I would hazard a guess not many of them plan to sit out this election.
Data from the Office of Immigration Statistics shows that those new citizens were from: Mexico, 94,783, India, 45,985, Philippines, 42,520, People’s Republic of China, 32,864, and Colombia, 22,693. There were, of course, others who came to our shore from other nations, like Iran, 9,286, Poland, 8,844 and Nigeria, 9,344.
Maybe it’s time to ask ourselves, “What did those new citizens see in America that made them want to leave for this place?” What is here that wasn’t back home? One of the answers a questioner would likely get from the group “To be able to elect my representatives.” That would probably fall in the top three or five reasons to become a U.S. citizen.
Other reasons they come to America would be for opportunity not possible in their homeland and perhaps better education than is available on the native sod.
If you still plan to sit out the general election, refuse to pull a lever for anyone, imagine if the election were edible, and you went to a restaurant to dine. You would enter, be seated, maybe take a sip of water, unfold the napkin, enjoy the ambiance of the establishment then, when the waiter or waitress was ready to take your order you said, “Oh, I don’t want to order anything. Just give me something to eat.”
Imagine the look on the server’s face. “Sir, (or Ma’am) I cannot do that. You must order from the menu.”
“Oh, no, I don’t want to do that. There is too much on the menu. I can’t make up my mind, it’s all too confusing. I don’t like seafood, and I hate pasta, I don’t eat meat or chicken or turkey, and, for heaven’s sake, I don’t want a vegetarian platter. So, just order something you think I would like to eat.”
“Might I suggest the daily special?” the server might offer as a last ditch effort to please the customer.
“No, I don’t want to order. You make the choice for me. You work here; I trust your judgment to give me supper.”
A half hour later, out comes your meal. To your amazement, dinner is a wonderfully arranged assortment of crackers, cheese slices and a mound of peanut butter. Best of all, to wash it down, a large glass of club soda, and two neatly placed TastyKake butterscotch Krimpets for dessert.
“What’s the big idea?” you might snarl at the waiter or waitress. “This isn’t my idea of a dinner, why, it’s not even a half decent appetizer.” “My good fellow, (or lady), you refused to order from the menu. You did not want to order from our wide selection. When I protested, you said you would trust my judgment to give you supper. I followed your order to the “T” and gave you exactly what I thought you would enjoy.”
That will be exactly how ever non-voter will feel on the morning of Nov. 7 having been confronted with the results of the election in which he (or she) had no interest or cared to cast a ballot.
Sooner or later, the effects of the election will become apparent and very personal. To be more specific, the election will mean reaching into your wallet or extracting more money from your account. At that point, it will be as if someone is violating your person, and you will wonder how such a thing could ever happen in this great land of ours.
At that very moment, you, who decided to let someone else cast a vote for you, may wish the other candidate would have won. Maybe at that moment you will decide to vote in the next election, but that will be at some distant point in time.
Then maybe, just maybe, you will be driving or walking or bicycling along Ocean Avenue in Wildwood. You will look over at the gut-wrenching memorial wall, and maybe you will remember somebody whose name is etched on the shiny black surface. You might listen as the wind off the ocean whips the flag overhead.
Perhaps a twinge of guilt will sweep over you as you think of those 58,195 men and woman named there, and so many more resting in national cemeteries around the globe, who died for the freedom you spurned. If for no other reason, cast your vote in their memory. They gave all to protect and pass on that right for you to vote; don’t turn your back on them. They certainly didn’t turn their back on you.