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Public Service Announcement
Oct. 31st, 2010 11:44 am This post is not about Fire Emblem, fandom, or food. It is a political post, and I am not placing it under a cut because I am not endorsing any parties, platforms, candidates, or bills. This is aimed at those of you out there who are U.S. citizens eligible to vote.
People on the 'Net are passionate about things. Our passions bring us together, and between the love or hate for the mass-media artifacts that make the substance of our fandom, we get a feel for the other passions we have. We learn about one another's triumphs and struggles and get a sense, in most cases, of the "real person" beneath the fandom pseudonym. We're all "meatlife" people going about our day-to-day business and trying to make it the best we can in a world that often seems actively hostile toward us and our loved ones.
Our interests are broad and deep. Education and the funding thereof. The health-care system and its injustices, especially with regard to mental health issues. Employment and the lack thereof. Religion in its many facets. Property and personal rights. Patent and copyright issues. Censorship. Marriage, adoption, and child-rearing. Social issues. Financial issues. Some of these have direct bearings on the fandoms we love, some of them form the foundation of who and what we are as persons in our society. We do not agree with one another on every issue; we are not a hive mind.
And yet, bring up participation in our political system, and this articulate and passionate group of people often does speak with one voice: I'm not really political. I don't usually bother to vote. I only vote for president when it comes up.
Seriously. Do you think that laws just sprout up in the books when no one is looking, like mushrooms? Every law out there was crafted by people to serve a particular interest. There are many bad laws that were designed by a small group of people who took advantage of general apathy to make their desires the law. There are sloppy laws that passed with broad support because of a knee-jerk reaction to a certain event. There are good laws that overcame vicious and even violent opposition (Civil Rights Act?). And there are some long-overdue laws that are designed to protect the interests of the people, like the recent amendment to the Michigan Constitution that prevents abuse of eminent domain. Something as seemingly inconsequential as a city zoning ordinance can turn out to have a vast impact on your own life and the well-being of your community. That's not even party politics-- that's your life and the life of everyone trying to make a go of it as a bookseller, or a restauranteur, or a record store manager. Not to mention all of their employees.
At a local level, a county level, a state level, your voice does make a difference. Because of the federal structure of our government, these local and state affairs do often ripple up to a national level. In the long run, your vote for state attorney general, or for the state Supreme Court, can matter far, FAR more than your vote for president once every four years.
I'm not going to guilt-trip you by rattling off the number of Constitutional Amendments that made it possible for an eighteen-year-old woman of color to even have the right to vote in our society. Suffice it to say that universal adult suffrage is something that generations of Americans fought to achieve. Voting isn't mandatory in the U.S.-- no one is forcing you to do it. And you don't lose your First Amendment right to complain just because you can't be bothered to fill out a punch card, or slip an absentee ballot in the mail. But the next time you feel the urge to sit before the computer and write about how something is unfair, or unjust, or how the world is screwing you over-- ask yourself if you ever stood up to exercise your own rights and your own voice... or if you just sat back and let other people make the decisions that govern your life.
Vote your conscience on Tuesday, whatever that may be, but for the love of whatever it is you deem sacred, please vote.
Comments locked because if you agree with me, I'd rather you act upon it than say it on LJ. If you don't care enough about your rights and responsibilities as a citizen to exercise them, I'd rather not know who you are. And if you're of the mindset that believes everything is some grand conspiracy with the Illuminati or whomever arranging the outcome to every election in advance, I get enough of that crap from my mother and I don't need to hear it from you.
People on the 'Net are passionate about things. Our passions bring us together, and between the love or hate for the mass-media artifacts that make the substance of our fandom, we get a feel for the other passions we have. We learn about one another's triumphs and struggles and get a sense, in most cases, of the "real person" beneath the fandom pseudonym. We're all "meatlife" people going about our day-to-day business and trying to make it the best we can in a world that often seems actively hostile toward us and our loved ones.
Our interests are broad and deep. Education and the funding thereof. The health-care system and its injustices, especially with regard to mental health issues. Employment and the lack thereof. Religion in its many facets. Property and personal rights. Patent and copyright issues. Censorship. Marriage, adoption, and child-rearing. Social issues. Financial issues. Some of these have direct bearings on the fandoms we love, some of them form the foundation of who and what we are as persons in our society. We do not agree with one another on every issue; we are not a hive mind.
And yet, bring up participation in our political system, and this articulate and passionate group of people often does speak with one voice: I'm not really political. I don't usually bother to vote. I only vote for president when it comes up.
Seriously. Do you think that laws just sprout up in the books when no one is looking, like mushrooms? Every law out there was crafted by people to serve a particular interest. There are many bad laws that were designed by a small group of people who took advantage of general apathy to make their desires the law. There are sloppy laws that passed with broad support because of a knee-jerk reaction to a certain event. There are good laws that overcame vicious and even violent opposition (Civil Rights Act?). And there are some long-overdue laws that are designed to protect the interests of the people, like the recent amendment to the Michigan Constitution that prevents abuse of eminent domain. Something as seemingly inconsequential as a city zoning ordinance can turn out to have a vast impact on your own life and the well-being of your community. That's not even party politics-- that's your life and the life of everyone trying to make a go of it as a bookseller, or a restauranteur, or a record store manager. Not to mention all of their employees.
At a local level, a county level, a state level, your voice does make a difference. Because of the federal structure of our government, these local and state affairs do often ripple up to a national level. In the long run, your vote for state attorney general, or for the state Supreme Court, can matter far, FAR more than your vote for president once every four years.
I'm not going to guilt-trip you by rattling off the number of Constitutional Amendments that made it possible for an eighteen-year-old woman of color to even have the right to vote in our society. Suffice it to say that universal adult suffrage is something that generations of Americans fought to achieve. Voting isn't mandatory in the U.S.-- no one is forcing you to do it. And you don't lose your First Amendment right to complain just because you can't be bothered to fill out a punch card, or slip an absentee ballot in the mail. But the next time you feel the urge to sit before the computer and write about how something is unfair, or unjust, or how the world is screwing you over-- ask yourself if you ever stood up to exercise your own rights and your own voice... or if you just sat back and let other people make the decisions that govern your life.
Vote your conscience on Tuesday, whatever that may be, but for the love of whatever it is you deem sacred, please vote.
Comments locked because if you agree with me, I'd rather you act upon it than say it on LJ. If you don't care enough about your rights and responsibilities as a citizen to exercise them, I'd rather not know who you are. And if you're of the mindset that believes everything is some grand conspiracy with the Illuminati or whomever arranging the outcome to every election in advance, I get enough of that crap from my mother and I don't need to hear it from you.
