I’m remembering an election when I was living in Brooklyn. A little more than ten years ago, in my 30s, voting was no longer a novel thing I had waited my entire adolescence to get to participate in. I was once so enthusiastic about voting but how to get myself to vote when I was sliding into complacency?
I was new to “mindful” living and not yet slowed down enough to be intentional or plan. It was election day, a local election, and I just didn’t wanna. So how did I do it anyway? I’d love to tell you.
A quick one today!
I’m not a big believer of motivating myself through guilt and shame, I understand those to be rooted from systems of oppression / religiosity that are implanted into us as children and through society. (For more on this my latest podcast explains, episode 141.)
However, at the time I wasn’t so aware of that so I let the guilt that bubbled up in response to these reasons as I recited them to myself. It was the early days of smart phones and Google helping us vote and I was able to google my polling place, show up and do my civic duty at the last minute (around 7PM). I remember it so clearly because it was a big victory over personal complacency!
Reason 1: People died so I could vote. As a woman, a queer person, a fat person, a plant medicine user, a non property owning white person, people like me a hundred years ago weren’t allowed to vote. There’s active voter suppression going on now in the 2020s, if your vote didn’t matter they wouldn’t try to suppress it. I’m always voting as a grateful response for the people who were murdered and jailed seeking my right to vote and my right to choose.
Reason 2: Watching my mom become a citizen! While I was born in California, I was raised by an undocumented Canadian immigrant who was granted amnesty in 1987 and worked hard to get her citizenship in the 90s. It was so much work! That thought sails right to making me want to vote and fight that personal complacency. Solidarity with the immigrants who get the job done!
Reason 3: All elections matter. At the time I had not comprehended how much local politics matter but now that I’ve learned much more about the role of local politics and policing and how that directly impacts the lives of Black people in America I do my diligence. Now that I’ve seen the Netflix documentary Thirteenth local elections feel more vital than ever.
Reason 4: I know my shortcuts to getting information. My perfectionism and resultant fear based procrastination is swift to tell me I didn’t prepare enough so I need to just freeze. (I lived most of my first 30+ years in a constant fight, flight, freeze, appease mode.)
In 2022 we have access to more information than we can ever consume. This is why we have to get clear about discernment–who influences us in what area, what is the motiviation of the person/organization giving information and what is the fruit on the tree of those people. I look to sources I trust and I vote my values. I don’t give in to the perfectionism excuse of “I don’t know who to vote for” and seek out voter guides.
While I remain registered as a Democrat because I want to vote in primary elections (which honestly is the *real* choice in some elections) I’m identified as nothing. I think the two party system is broken and doesn’t adequately represent actual human diversity.
And yet, the rise of fascism is clear and, again, if voting didn’t matter they wouldn’t try to suppress it so much.
Now that I’m more mature and considerably more mindful, I make an actual voting plan. I live rurally so I must vote absentee every time, but dealing with paper mail and clutter remains a growth area for me. So my plan this year was a swift turn around time–pick up ballot from mail on Friday, return it to town to mail back on Monday.
Okay, I hope this helps inspire you to actually vote and do the thing! We need your voice and your vote matters!
P.S. Shout out to anyone else who was 17 during a major presidential election! I remember very clearly how betrayed I felt by Bill Clinton signing the Defense of Marriage Act after heavily courting LGBTQ voters in the 1996 election. Wow, I once really believed in the government but now I know the real change begins with personal responsibility. I’m gonna thrive no matter who is in office but I’m also going to always & consistently use my right to vote.
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