I am shocked into disarray when people tell me that they aren’t voting. Why, I ask? They answer: “My vote makes no difference” and I respond with urgency– “yes, your vote counts—people died for the right to vote”. And, I don’t stop there, I deliver a message similar to the one below:
Vote because every election matters. Vote because the choices you will make matter. Vote because elections aren’t simply about your representatives in Washington or who is president. Who you choose this November to lead your local and state 
governments — whether as your governor, mayor, city council member, or your state senator — will have a serious impact on the life of your community. When we vote for our state and local officials, we make choices that will have very direct and concrete effects on our daily lives.
Voting matters. When voters don’t turn out to choose their local and state governments, they receive a government that doesn’t represent them.
I press on with my argument only to be stopped by the two most powerless slang phrases in American history: “I am not voting– it is what it is—whatever”. I could scream.
Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
Every day we have a choice: we can be the author of our life or choose to sit on the sidelines and be a pawn or patsy for others. When you choose the latter, you forfeit your right to whine, complain or blame others. Now more than ever, get in the game: Join me and cast your vote on Tuesday, November 7! Make certain that your friends vote, too.
Remember the words of Mary Wright Edelman: 