The Evolution of a Voter

I remember the first time I ever went to the polls. It was in Virginia and I probably wouldn’t have gone but for one reason. I was nervous, at 18, for this new experience. But my mom urged me to go.  “I’ll drive you,” she said.

She knew, even then, I wouldn’t be voting for her candidate. She joked about our votes canceling out. In a way, it confused me that we should bother going when we knew this was the truth. But I also sensed the importance that I couldn’t understand in that moment with my limited perspective. That one day, we set in motion my voting evolution. 

Over the years I have voted in (to my recollection) every election. And yet it wasn’t until the state of the country now that I realized the full depth of why I do it. 

I’m now 44 and live in Colorado. I enjoy a different life from that on the east coast, on the outskirts of Washington, DC. And yet, in many ways, my life has more threads of politics than it ever did before. 

I am honored to have many friends and acquaintances here who I would call activists. They canvas for campaigns, candidates, and reform. They paint cars to advertise school advocacy. They write out postcards to send to individuals reminding them to vote and expressing the importance of different propositions. They visit their Senators and Congressmen. They make calls to advocate for necessary change, to speak to our representatives about the views of our community. They encourage everyone around them to do the same. 

As I have watched them rally for the United States of America that they believe in, I have worked through discomfort with my own passivity. I have sat with my own feelings of sadness and confusion, with my feelings of isolation. I have watched and waited to see…  what is it that sparks me to action? 

And over the years, my voice has become stronger, more clear and concise. I realized that what sparks me to action is to see what I consider to be not just my personal values, but societal values sacrificed, sold. And to see this awakens a fire within my soul.  This is a sacrifice I am not willing to take – this cost is too great. 

It is time for us, the mothers (or friends or acquaintances) of new voters, to come full circle and to say, “I’ll drive you” and start a new voter (r)evolution….   it’s time for those of us who normally sit back to step forward into action. 

It is time for us to sit with our discomfort long enough to understand that part of our discomfort comes from inaction. And our inaction can be solved by sitting with discomfort long enough to know what we are willing to stand for.