Voting: Fundamental Activism

Voting Matters: Actions You Can Take!

We hear a lot about democracy being threatened. Let’s be clear: This country has never been a democracy. For too many of us, democracy has always been under threat. Many of our ancestors experienced tremendous abuse for the right to vote; for insisting on participating in a system that was never made with them in mind. Poor people and communities of color and the earth herself are often targets of infrastructure neglect: inadequate schools, unhealthy food and food deserts, crimes, racial profiling, water contamination, oil drilling, and inadequate responses to disasters. These infractions can continue or stop depending on our care and our involvement.

Democracy is an aspiration and an action that requires diligence.

Today, voting is a right and a privilege that must be taken seriously as it governs every aspect of our day to day lives. For generations, a strategy of voter suppression is to spread confusion; to wear us down to the point that we throw our hands up in the air in righteous indignation. Some of us even want to move to another country. Or we become paralyzed, or we vote along with others’ beliefs without knowing for ourselves what we want and must take responsibility for.

Democracy is an aspiration we must tirelessly insist on through our right to vote!

And while you may be as disgusted as I am with the slow drip of social and systems change and inherent hypocrisy, it’s the only system we have, and it’s broken; and it can’t be fixed if you don’t vote thoughtfully.

Watch my video message below for more thoughts!

Also, visit Mind Our Democracy — a video of my spiritual friends, a website, and a set of resources to inspire civic engagement within contemplative communities. This is our time to turn the tide toward democracy!

4 thoughts on “Voting: Fundamental Activism”

  1. Ruth, an excellent video! I have been encouraging my FBF on the importance of voting and suggestions of things to consider in preparation to vote in the November election. Dr. John Love.

  2. Powerful, heart-centered video, Ruth. Thank you! I’m reminded of my grandmother’s wise, unflagging determination to vote. Until her last year before becoming an ancestor, she voted. Never will I forget the last time: in her wheelchair, beneath a blistering southern sun, she wheeled herself to the voting booth. Ache’! Considering that only white male adult landowners could originally vote in the USA; realizing that the vote was long and hard fought for by so many (including white male adult landowners); honoring the legacy of those who came before and holding space for those yet to come… right here, right now, I vote.

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