Why Don’t You Vote?
by St. Fallen (saintfallen.wordpress.com)
photo by flickr.com/photos/circo_de_invierno
It puts me off that a lot of “educated”, “opinionated” “individuals”, aren’t going to bother voting at this presidential election. Because there’s “no point”, why choose between “the lesser of two evils”? “It’s all rigged anyway… the system is too corrupt… my vote won’t make a difference” You want to make a difference? You want to see change? Then be that change, instead of waiting for it to come along.
So what if both candidates have downsides, it doesn’t mean it would be wrong for you to decide between them. Regardless of what you do or don’t do, you do make a difference, more than you know. You’re acting by not acting, you’re choosing without making a choice, you’re voting someone in by not voting.
If you’ve been registered to vote, please do. It doesn’t take that much effort to drive to a polling booth, and vote for the candidate you think would do good, or less harm, it’s relative and it’s too bad it’s not absolute, but vut to do? Let your vote go to waste? In the 2005 Presidential Election, over 13 million citizens were registered to vote, of which only 9 odd million cast their vote. Millions of wasted votes, votes that could have been for anyone, votes that could have made a difference.
You, you who don’t vote. You’re not just one person. You’re not as insignificant as you think you are. You’re 3 million people, you can make a difference. You can be the change, but only if you vote. But please, don’t waste your vote by voting for someone who doesn’t stand a chance to win anyway, that’s just as bad as not voting.
There are two candidates, get to know what each stand for, it doesn’t take that long to weigh it out and see who is the lesser evil. Sure, there will be consequences either way, but it’s like that with any decision you make. Talk about it with your friends, your family, or even random stranger, get as many viewpoints as you can, but keep an open mind, and come to your own conclusion. Vote for who you think should win, they might not be the best, they might not be the “change” you’ve been waiting for, but it’s a start, and you’re making a difference.
If you want change you have to be it, even if you want things to stay as they are, go vote and make sure it does. I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, I’m just asking you to vote. Express yourself, speak out. We shout and scream for freedom of speech, freedom of this, freedom of that, when we’re the ones who seal our lips shut. Don’t stay silent this time around. Use your voice. Make a choice. Vote.
More details: saintfallen.wordpress.com
We Sri Lankans are good at shoutung at mistakes .Voteing must by law- Non voters should be made to pay a fine or lose all rights and state benifits.
MR LEE I AGREE WITH YOU, BUT WILL WE GET A HONEST POLITICO IN NEAR FUTURE ???
the future will not be filled with hope unless we make a move towards the light, whatever little bit of it we see, only by stepping towards it will the hope shine through. we can’t sit and wait for it to come now can we? and let the darkness consume everything there is, without us knowing exactly what they’re up to?
It’s not just Sri Lankans that shout at mistakes, it can be seen everywhere, and that’s quite sad :/
Choice…. simple
choice no. 1
1 Corruption
2. Bribery
3. Mismanagement
4. Plundering the nation by family
5.Appointing underworld as ministers
6. Appointing every Tom Dick and Harry as ministers and give them hundreds of perks
7. No accountability what ever they do.
Choice no- 2
1. Honesty
2. Integrity
3. Uncorruptible
4. No family in SL to plunder the wealth
5. Keeps promises
6. Govt. servent for 40 yrs, hence knows suffering of middle class
7.Eradicated corruption in Forces. and alas, the result – won the war !
8. Disciplinarian
Difficult choice???? Hwo says so…. ?
Very well and simply put, dear Joseph.
To the point!
I HAVE MY DOUBTS…
I always judged people on what they do to others as they will never say or do anything to your face.
I cannot vote at this election too as I live abroad but I could say that the known devil is better than the unknown so called angel whose life in the army is colourful on the surface and tarnished at the core. (ask some officers who have served under him)
THIS IS NOT TAKING AWAY THE GLORY AND HONOUR THAT SF DESERVES FOR HIS COMMITMENT TO THE WAR EFFORT.
It’s just that we know so much about MR and his family but sweet nothing about SF and that is dangerous.
In less decisive times, one could be liberal and say that voting must be purely voluntary.
It is for us Lankans to decide if this is such a time, or whether, the reported excesses of our sovereign executive power, not merely by the incumbent, but by a whole lot more, family, hangers-on, catchers, etc, does not compell us to exercise our franchise to oust the most immoral of administrations, known, so far?
The excesses one reads about are so gigantic, that we do not have even the luxury of properly evaluating the options, it seems!
That is where we are after all the political maturity and accumen that we boast of in sixty years of independence!
Probably that is the problem! Only cheap political know-how, and an abysmal paucity of statesmanship!
May we choose wisely, and look forward to being blessed with just, fair and moral rule!
May all be safe and well!