Today, I’m thankful that I have a voice in the most democratic process on Earth.
Making a decision is never easy, despite the fact that, as humans, we make hundreds, if not thousands, of personal choices every single day. How many cups of coffee will I drink today? What will I have for breakfast today? Will I choose to exercise this morning? What will I wear for my workday? What music will I listen to on my daily walk? OK, I’ve just highlighted 5 simple decisions that I will choose to make today – and all of them before 9 AM. Our minds have been programmed in such a way to habitually make instantaneous decisions to these and many other choices in our daily lives. We are so attuned to such rapid decision making that we rarely give much thought to these decisions, partly because the gravity of our selections is relatively insignificant in the immediate short term. We know they’ll be many more of the same decisions to make tomorrow.
However, what we often neglect to realize is that the decisions we do not make are just that – decisions we have chosen on our own volition. If we choose not to drink coffee, eat breakfast, exercise, or go on a walk this morning, we are still making a deliberate decision not to act. Our capacity to make such unimpeded decisions is contingent on our freewill. Those who espouse to the belief of freewill are bound by the principle of metaphysical libertarianism, wherein humans have the agency to select one or more possible courses of actions under a given set of circumstances. Conversely, the philosophical premise of determinism is based on the principle that all events are already preordained and, in fact, there is only true course of action.
At an early age, I recognized I have a choice. Perhaps this was because I spent endless hours listening to Rush, the three-member progressive rock band from Toronto, Canada. Founded the same year as I was born, Rush kept me thoroughly entertained in my youth. I owned all their albums and listened to them incessantly, much to the chagrin of my parents. In fact, Rush was the first concert I ever attended as a child, at the hefty cost of $12. Near the end of their performance that fateful November day in 1981 in the Jacksonville Coliseum, Rush played one of their classic hits from the Permanent Waves album. That song, Freewill, sums up my belief on the power of human choice:
You can choose a ready guide, In some celestial voice. If you choose not to decide, You still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears, And kindness that can kill. I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose freewill.
So, folks, here we are on United States Election Day in 2020. On this day (Nov 3), all adults who are citizens of this stupendous country have a massive responsibility to select the next President of the United States. Once every four years on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, Americans behold the awesome responsibility to select the next Commander-in-Chief of our nation. Today, the 59th quadrannual presidential election will determine who will serve in the highest office of the Executive Branch of the federal government for the next 1,460 days.
Sounds like a long time, doesn’t it? Well, it is.
Of course, I’m not here to espouse to one candidate or another. Whether you choose to select the incumbent Donald Trump, who currently serves as the 45th president and hails from the state of Florida, or his competitor, Joe Biden, the former Vice President of the United States and the Democratic Party candidate from Delaware, is entirely your choice. Far be it for me to influence your selection. However, I do wish to influence your decision to make this choice.
As an American citizen, you hold the power to help influence the selection in this process. Sadly, this right you currently posses was not always a guarantee. When our ‘forefathers’ ratified the US Constitution in 1787, the decision as to which American was able to vote rested mainly in the hands of the states. With this in mind, the privilege of suffrage was predominantly limited to white males owning property. Eventually, the right to land ownership was removed by the last state in 1856. Thereafter, it was not until the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870 that American citizens could not be denied the right to vote based on their race. Even worse, another 50 years would have to transpire before the 19th Amendment afforded the right to vote to all Americans, irrespective of gender. Even as late as 1971, young Americans over the age of 18 years could be drafted to fight in war but could not cast a ballot at the polls. Along the way, obstacles to suppress voters from their right to vote, including polling taxes, literacy tests, and identification tags, have been utilized by those wishing to influence the vote. Sadly, even as such measures are struck down, only an average of 55% of the eligible voters cast a vote for a Presidential election in the 21st Century.
So, my advice to you today is simple. Take advantage of the decision-making right you have to vote in today’s election. If you are an American citizen over the age of eighteen years, you have the duty, liberty, and prerogative to cast your vote. Your birthright to such a vote is a democratic entitlement that many around the world do not have. Don’t waste the opportunity.
And, if you elect not to cast a vote, either because you are lackadaisical, feel despondent by the choice of candidates, or do not presume you can influence the election outcome, I’ll remind you of one small point I learned long ago, courtesy of one of my favorite bands, Rush:
If you choose not to decide,
You still have made a choice.
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