RoslynReynolds.com

Freedom Isn’t Free

Posted On Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Under: The Power of a Positive Outlook, You can make a difference!

7:04 AM

The three women sitting at the long table looked up and smiled as I entered the otherwise empty room. Around the walls of the room stood five voting booths, simple collapsible metal structures, each with a yellow sheet of instructions taped to the top and a pen tethered to the writing surface.

The first woman asked for my name, typed it into the laptop in front of her, and gave a number to the second woman. She wrote that number and my name in a ledger, and asked me to sign next to my number, while the third woman handed me my ballot.

Today it was a simple ballot – two city offices, and one bond proposal. I was done in less than one minute.

The third woman reached for my ballot and removed the perforated segment, handed me back my ballot, and I “cast my vote” by dropping it into the metal box next to their table.

They all smiled and thanked me for coming and as I left, one handed me a sticker reading, “I Voted!” I placed it onto the lapel of my coat as I strode out to my car in the cold, still-dark morning.

As I turned the key in the ignition, my thoughts turned to the scene my daughter had described to me of voting in a third-world country. She had spent several months there last year serving as an educational volunteer.

The people told her of being terrified of elections. A person had to vote – there was no choice in the matter – and as they approached the long lines at the voting areas, armed guards surrounded them. A guard watched as the person filled out the ballot – and if the citizen dared to vote against the candidate who was paying the guards, there was no guarantee that citizen would live to see another moment. The guards had their orders, after all.

In 1984, George Orwell described a society where political decisions created a “brutally stifled” society, where “Newspeak” and “Doublethink” blurred the distinctions between truth and falsehood, and where the ‘safest’ way to live was to bow to the forces in power, and to abandon any personal convictions that conflicted with the ‘politically correct’ mindset.

I am grateful that, as yet, I still have the choice to vote or not. I could have voted for either candidate and my life would not have been endangered. I am grateful that, despite ominous clouds on the political horizon, I can still publicly voice my opinions and feel fairly secure that even if those opinions are in opposition to those of the people in power, I will make it home to my children that night.

These privileges are rare, in comparison to the majority of the world’s population, and they do not come without responsibility. As my classmates and I sang years ago in elementary school, “Freedom isn’t free,” and we can lose our freedoms quickly if we take them for granted and are not actively working to maintain them.

One way to do so is to educate ourselves about the candidates and issues, and then to take the time to vote. It is one way an individual can truly make a difference.

As Lord Brougham said, “Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.”

May all of us take one more step away from enslavement, seize this rare and precious privilege, and make our voices heard!

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