Having a Voice

Thanks to AOL Journals for featuring me in their top five weekly pick.  I'm very excited and honored to have so many new visitors and commenters, I will visit your journals and answer your comments very shortly. 

I also will go into further details about the Lindora program as featured in the First Magazine, the October 4th edition.

While I have all of your ears I'd like to bring up a topic I wouldn't normally address.  It was only after an Oprah episode yesterday where I realized there is a huge crisis in our culture of young Americans who opt not to exercise their right to vote.   One lady even went as far to say that if she lost her right to vote it wouldn't make a difference to her.  I was absolutely dumbfounded.

There are many reasons not to vote.  The candidates don't fit the job they are "applying" for.  Government doesn't address the needs that are important to you.  Many people vote, your vote won't make any difference.  If you register to vote you will be selected for jury duty.  "I'm not into politics, it's boring and no one ever tells the truth anyway - just make a lot of empty promises."

If the candidates don't flip your switch either way, not voting is still casting a vote.  You have to decide who is the best man for the job, and the more people who vote will demand a certain level of integrity from the candidates.  It will also strengthen your position.  If it's important to you and you hold the power to put these men and women on the job, then it will become important to them.  The reason politicians don't address the concerns of younger Americans is because younger Americans do not vote. 

Many people do vote, this is true.  But when you consider the last election was decided by a mere 500+ votes, it shows every single vote does make a difference. 

Politics is as interesting as it is applicable to our everyday lives.  Everything we do is somehow connected to the government and fundamentally affected by the power of the vote.  From health care to taxes, to education to foreign policy - everything can directly affect you - and I find that to interest me greatly.

As for jury duty, I've been a registered voter since 1990 and I've only been called for jury duty once - which I got out of because I couldn't get off work. 

The most important reason to vote is because you can.  You have that right as an American.  It's a right people have died to protect, and it's a privilege to have this right.  All over the world people do not have a voice, women especially, and to not vote when you have the right to is, to me, unthinkable.

I am not pushing any particular candidate, but I urge you, if you haven't registered to vote, if you haven't ever voted before, this year more than any year before please, please exercise your right.  Raise your voice and be heard.  You do have the power to make a difference. 

Declare Yourself - Register to Vote

Sept. 29

Calories: 2011
Fat:  32%
Sat. Fat: 5%
Water: 48oz
Exercise: On hold

DAILY AFFIRMATION - I have a voice and it deserves to be heard.