Dear Editor: Whether a voter’s politics lean left, right, or not at all, we enter November with a historic opportunity to set a firm direction toward the preservation of democracy within our Republic.
Every veteran who ever took their oath seriously knows the importance of preserving a system that affords citizens the opportunity to decide an overall direction by electing representatives who understand that solemn oath. And when they take (the oath), we have every right to assume they mean what they say when they say, “So help me, God.”
The vote is sacred. The vote is the lifeline back to the spirits of Jefferson, Franklin, and every military person who ever fell in a fight toward the notion that freedom and democracy have a price of sacrifice and duty shared by all—not by just a few.
Too often we encounter those who run for and win office for purposes of ego, self-enrichment or any range of reasons within an array of motives not associated with good governance.
In 2022, we have a chance to curtail—if not stop—local/state efforts to restrict voting and to retain freedoms. Freedoms that are rare, assumed and sporadic in the long, historic and sometimes forgotten backstory.
Vote. Stand and lend your voice. It’s still, for now, your right. And it’s an obligation to responsible citizenship.