Top 10 Reasons to Vote (by Tom Watkins)

We have all have heard it before — this is a crucial election. It is.

If you think elections don’t really matter, reflect back on the past decade in Michigan and America. Leadership matters and now is your chance to choose who will lead our state into the future.

On Nov. 2, all of us, rich or poor, cities and suburbs, blacks or whites, college-educated or high school dropout — we all have one vote.

Don’t use it and you are giving your power away and eroding the very foundation of our state and country.

On Election Day we are all truly equal. We the voters hold the power to decide who will lead our nation, our state and communities into the future.

But you must vote to make your voice heard. Better still — text, e-mail, tweet and Facebook your family and friends and get them to the polls as well.

TOP TEN REASONS TO VOTE

To honor those throughout our history who fought and died to preserve our independence and democracy.

For the men in women in uniform both at home and abroad who are currently fighting for our freedom and to protect our way of life.

For the civil rights activist who fought the injustices so African Americans, who gave their blood sweat and tears to help build this country, could share in all its glory.

For all of the strong women of the Women’s Suffrage movement, who knew “right was right and wrong was wrong” and demanded their place in America.

Vote as an example to our children and the youth of this great country. They will inherit all that freedom and democracy that has built to date. Vote as a reminder that it is their responsibility to build an even more perfect union.

Vote and become a beacon to the world that America is governed for the people and by the people.

Participate as a reminder that we should not take our freedom and democracy for granted. People have been imprisoned and have died for the rights we have come to expect in America.

Vote to prove, once again, that polls don’t win elections. People who vote win elections. Time and time again, we have seen candidates being outspent and written off — only to stand tall in victory after “the people have spoken!”

Voting is an investment in our collective future.

Vote because you can. Democracy only works when we participate. Your vote will help make history.

Vote on Nov. 2 or our liberty and freedom could one day be history.

America & The Invisible Hand

In his first Inaugural Address, George Washington remarked that "it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and the happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes . . . ."

His prayer was followed by an astute observation - which might very well be controversial today if uttered by a President:  "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.  Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have distinguished by some token of providential agency . . . ."  

Indeed, any one who truly understands our history would have difficulty in contradicting the sentiment.

In the hustle and bustle of the day, take time to give thanks for the miracle that is America.

George Washington - Humility by the Greatest Character of the Age

My parents recently gave me a new book from the Smithsonian Institution, "Presidents, All You Need to Know" by Carter Smith.  I began by flipping to the back and re-reading George Washington's First Inaugural Address.  The beginning of his address is almost unimaginable in today's politics.  He essentially stated that he felt he was reluctant to become our first President, he was getting old and was ready for retirement, and was not certain he was ready for the task.  He asked that if he failed to meet their expectations, that the people remember that he took the office because he was called to duty by them and he loved his country.

Humility is a trait that is noticeably lacking in today's discourse.  Yet, here is the greatest character of the age (that was the phrase given to him by his nemesis King George III) publicly expressing self-doubt in his major address as President to the country which he was helped create more than any other.  Washington's public professions should be more carefully examined - and followed - by those who govern today.

Publish Post

America - Last Hope for Justice

"Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy."  Walt Whitman.


Whitman's observation is true today as it was made generations ago.  In the interim we have faced down the Kaiser, Nazism, Imperial Japan, and the USSR.  Today we are fighting for justice against extreme radical Islamic terrorists whose idea of justice is a one world caliphate, denying women equality, and abolishing all unalienable rights (such as the free exercise of religion, free speech, the right to assemble).


Of course, the fight for justice at home is never complete, but we remain the world's last, best hope for freedom, equality, and justice.  As we confront our challenges - domestic and foreign - we will be best prepared to prevail if we keep our Founding First Principles at the forefront.  Otherwise, justice for us all will vanish into the darkness of history.