It’s time, and you knew it was coming. We all need to make the decision to vote or not to vote. If this is the first presidential election that you are eligible to vote for, like me, you should be excited to finally have the chance to decide who will be the President of the United States. If you have already voted, you are either still excited or have begun to believe that your vote does not matter. You might not even care anymore mostly because of the two candidates that we have left to choose from.
Regardless of how you feel about the two candidates, you should vote. I don’t care who you vote for, just vote. I’m not saying to vote to keep Donald Trump from winning or to keep Hillary Clinton from winning, just vote period.
The reason why you should vote is simple: because you care. You care if your children will have healthcare, you care about their education and your own. You also care how we as a country react to threats to our safety. I don’t mind telling you that if you don’t love the United States, go live somewhere else, and I don’t say that ignorantly. There are plenty of beautiful countries that are great places to live and provide liberty just like the United States and don’t have the same problems of this country. But, if you love this country like I do, you will do everything you can to make it better for yourself, your children and your fellow citizens. One of the best ways we can do that is by voting.
Some of your fellow students will say that our votes do not count, and that is ridiculous. If you have $100 and take one dollar away, you have $99. That one dollar counted and helped make up $100, so reality check, your vote counts. If you don’t vote and delude yourself into believing that your vote doesn’t count, it’s not because it does count. You don’t vote because you don’t care.
Voting is our power over the government. If you don’t like the job the politicians are doing, vote their butt out of office. This country was built to be as great as the people who live in it. If we want this country to be the greatest in the world, we have to make it that way. I know this country has a lot of problems, but problems are made to be solved and one person cannot do it for us. We have to do it.
When this election is over, our job is not done. Voting is not a fix all we have to do. Follow up, hold the candidates to their promises and remind them that we put them there and we can replace them.
This is a great time to be alive, therefore, many issues are on the table for discussion and it’s going to either make or break our country. As a black American, this election is crucial for me. Despite everything my people have been through, I believe in our future in this country, and I think it is a bright one. We are more “woke” than we have been in a long time and I think we will play a big role in this election if we participate. As a journalist, I consider it my duty to deliver the truth to the public, and the truth is that the government does not control us, we control the government.
In November, whether the person you voted for wins or not, you will always be able to say that you tried to do something about it. Don’t let someone else decide the fate of the country that you live in; make your voice be heard. If your life matters, then vote like it matters.