For the sake of our people, our children and our land, please vote. It matters who is on our school boards, who makes zoning decisions, who decides on the health of our people and land. There are many reasons to vote and I began this morning to list them off the top of my head and they became too numerous to include here (so I put them at the bottom as a kind of appendix).
For some people, one or two issues will determine their vote. Some will focus on a few. Many will simply go with their “team.”
It’s easy to get lost in one or two emotionally-charged issues, or to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of things to address. (Perhaps it is a political tactic to present so many issues and false controversies that people like us give up and let others make the decisions.) As I’ve written before, returning to core values helps to put things in perspective.
I offer here, for what it’s worth, my major categories of concerns, in no particular order, based on some of my deep values.
- Truth and transparency – without them, our votes mean little and our representatives fall prey to wealthy secret donors
- Respect and equality for all human beings – with none made second-class citizens because of race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, wealth, or the composition of their families
- The value of diversity in nature, ideas and humanity
- Health of our environment and protection of our land, water and air from all forms of degradation, which includes respect for climate science
- Protection of public resources from private speculation, whether natural resources, general welfare or social security.
In short, what primarily motivates me are care for the well-being of all people and care for our environment. I am concerned about the world we are leaving to our grandchildren. More and more, I believe it is true that whatever we do to the land we do to ourselves (and our children). Whatever resources we use, we do not own but borrow them from our children’s children’s children.
Those who do not vote, submit to the values and will of those who do vote. So, whichever side you fall on (or stand up for) in these issues, please vote.
This list is exhausting but may not be exhaustive. Maybe I’ll try to organize it by category some other time. My point is this: there are many many reasons to be involved, such as:
- Social justice
- Election security
- Wealth inequality
- Healthcare
- Taxation issues and tax fairness
- Money in politics
- Citizens united
- Gender equality
- LGBTQ rights
- Role of religion in politics
- Social security, Medicaid, Medicare
- Climate change and global warming
- Corporate responsibility and regulation
- Political corruption
- Corporate subsidies
- Expectations of government
- Road and bridge repair
- Internet access and neutrality
- Local zoning
- Immigration
- Racial justice and equality
- Competence and respectability of elected and appointed office-holders
- Foreign agreements
- Expectations of an objective media
- Environmental degradation and protection
- Water quality
- Air quality
- Industrial and agricultural poisons in the environment
- Corporate honesty and transparency
- Science
- Health of our forests
- Treaties with native peoples
- Voting rights and responsibilities
- Gerrymandering
- Human and civil rights
- Welfare of vulnerable populations
- Women’s economic equality
- Privilege of males, whites, and wealthy
- Gun safety and issues of ownership
- Patriarchal systems of government
- Consumer protections
- Truth and transparency in elected and appointed offices
- Super PACs and “dark money”
- Relationship between lobbyists and government officials
- States’ rights vs. Federal responsibilities
- Political violence
- Political discourse
- Sexual harassment and rape culture
- Justice for victims and the accused
- Abortion and women’s sovereignty over their bodies
- National character and identity
- Constitutional disagreements
- Use of executive orders to make changes in policy and execution
- Endangered species
- Use of public lands
- Corporate responsibility to local communities
- Off-shore tax shelters and evasion
- Government’s right to regulate sexual behavior of adults
- Role of religious expression in public commercial activity
- The number of mindless myths in political decisions carrying misleading labels such as “trickle-down economics,” socialism, family values, unsettled science, unproven, etc.