It Is A Privilege To Be Able To Vote + A Frenzied Reporter
One year our family had a memorable experience while voting. The experience reminded us that it is a privilege to be able to vote.
After standing in line for an hour and a half with my husband and children, I had the privilege of voting.
Afterwards, my children and I stood on the side of the road waiting for my husband to retrieve the truck.
“Mom!” laughed my daughter, “your hair!”
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The Reporter
Apparently the wind was picking my hair up and tossing it in random directions, giving my children a good laugh.
Suddenly, a vehicle pulled up next to us. A man jumped out, opened the trunk, and started digging through his camera cases.
“Are you a reporter?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, looking a bit frenzied, “it’s crazy here, isn’t it! The lines are long.”
“We just finished voting and it wasn’t too bad,” I replied.
“How long did it take you to vote?” he asked.
“Oh, about an hour and a half,” I replied calmly.
His eyes lit up and he asked, “Would you mind if I interviewed you? I’m a reporter with [a local newspaper].”
“I’d rather not,” I said, smiling. He nodded and rushed off down the sidewalk.
As I watched him turn the corner, I found myself second-guessing my response.
“Maybe I SHOULD have let him interview me. I don’t think I would have said what he was wanting to hear, but maybe I should have said it anyway,” I thought to myself.
“You should have talked with him, Mom,” my daughter lamented. “We could have been famous!”
I smiled and said, “I thought about it, but what about my hair?”
“Yeah,” she said, with a twinkle in her eye, “I was thinking the same thing. You would have have been known as the crazy-haired lady in the news.”
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Our Voting Experience
If I had shared our experience with the reporter, this is what I would have said:
“The long line wasn’t that bad, really. The weather was nice, with a soft breeze blowing. The children had time to review the Preamble and some of the U.S. Presidents, and we discussed how blessed we are to be able to vote. That, really, when you think about it, standing in a long line is a rather small sacrifice to make in order for our individual voices to be heard.
There was an occasional shady spot to rest in, and we were surrounded by friendly people, with whom we enjoyed visiting. The 90-year-old woman behind us was center stage as she shared experiences from her life, which began right before the Great Depression—favorite radio programs, life with her husband and three daughters, times when life was more secure and carefree. She also spoke of hard times and heartbreak–her cancer treatments and the death of her husband. She was interested in our family and asked many questions.
Her oldest daughter joined in the conversation, confessing what a pleasure it is to be acting as caretaker for her mother. She shared memories of growing up in California, job experiences, and more. The couples on either side of us joined in the conversation and, inch by inch–almost too soon for my liking–we made our way to the front of the line. What a pleasurable morning it had turned out to be! And what a privilege it was to be able to vote.”
Conclusion
It won’t be making headline news, but that is how I feel about the Voting Adventure our family had one beautiful fall morning. What a privilege and gift it is to be able to vote.
Shop Voting
BONUS: Interesting Voting History
Cicero, a Roman orator, lawyer, statesman, and philosopher, wrote on what he believed to be the ideal form of government. He thought highly of a monarchial government, if appointing an experienced and righteous king. Why? For one day soon our world will be ruled by Jesus Christ–King of King and Lord of Lords.
Principles of Freedom
Cicero’s top choice for government for his day, however, was one that included a combination of kingship, aristocracy, and democracy, utilizing a separation of powers.
Democracy alone, Cicero believed, had its pros and cons. For instance, the way votes (sufferages) were collected could predict the rise or subsequent fall of a society. Cicero and Montequieu’s insights (shared below) into the democratic voting process are incredibly fascinating to me, and teach principles of freedom of which we each should be aware, lest, with our own hands, we “seek [our] destruction”:
“… Cicero appears to have discerned the great moral of history—that the first steps to democracy are the first steps to ruin: that the monarchical principle is the only one which can permanently exalt and consolidate the energies of a state: whereas the accessions of democracy, into which all nations have a tendency to degenerate, are certainly accompanied with that virulent spirit of partizanship and faction, which, by dividing a nation’s strength, inevitably hurry it to decay; as was the case with Greece, and Rome, and Venice.
Open Voting
This conviction induced Cicero to oppose every obstacle he could to democratic corruption. Among other securities against this, he upheld the ancient Roman system of open voting by poll, (per capita) whereby the voters were induced to give their suffrages in the full presence of their fellow–citizens, to that mongrel style of secret voting by ballot, (per tabellas) which crept in during the later years of the republic, corrupted the moral courage and frankness of the ancient Romans into a sneaking and pitiful hypocrisy, and introduced infinite factions among the lower orders.
Of this doctrine of Cicero, Montesqieu has made a remark, which is worth quoting, from his “Spirit of Laws:”
“The law (says he) which determines the manner of giving suffrages is likewise fundamental in a democracy. It is a question of some importance, whether the suffrages ought to be public or secret. Cicero observes, that the laws which rendered them secret towards the close of the republic, were the cause of its decline. But as this is differently practised in different republics, I shall here offer my thoughts concerning the subject. The people’s suffrages (continues Montesqieu) ought, doubtless, to be public; and this should be considered as a fundamental law of democracy. The lower sort of people ought to be directed by those of higher rank, and restrained within bounds by the gravity of certain personages. Hence by rendering the suffrages secret in the Roman republic, all was lost: it was no longer possible to direct a populace that sought its own destruction.” –The Political Works of Cicero
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Conclusion
According to one source: “The reign of Caesar Augustus saw the final decline of democratic elections in Rome. Augustus undermined and lessened the significance of the election results, eventually eliminating elections entirely.”
The democratic method we use to vote matters a great deal, as it will, in large measure, determine the fate of America as a Constitutional Federal Republic.
“There is only one way to improve the taste of a nation. It cannot be done in a hurry and it cannot be done by force. It can only be accomplished by exposing the people patiently to that which is truly ‘good,’ to that which is truly ‘noble’…
“Try and persuade our children to make the good choice for themselves by exposing them just as much as possible to that which is a true product of divine inspiration and honest human craftmanship …
“In the end, those able to see for themselves will then make the right decisions, and because they will do it on their own volition, it will be a lasting one.”
