These Are My JOTtings...

What Is One Vote Worth?

What is one vote worth?

Recently, I was talking with a man, who doesn't feel like his vote is worth very much, since he is part of what has been the minority party for the past couple of decades in the state in which we live. He voiced some concerns about the Electoral College in the election process in the United States. "We should just count up all the votes in the country! Whoever gets the most, wins!"

He is not by himself in this opinion. However, discussion of the process is a thought for another day. I repeat. What is one vote worth?

Every country in the world has a national cemetery (or some place of recognition) for the honored dead of that nation. Young men and young women have fought for the protection of their homeland and the right to maintain the life, they held dear to the point, that they gave their lives defending that homeland and that life. The United States of America is not unique in that regard.

Humans throughout history have defended the very dearest treasures of existence on Earth with their very lives.

What is one vote worth?

The country I love has moved away from the Founding Fathers and the beliefs I hold dear, but still I vote. My responsibility is to vote, not to win. Just like the man I previously mentioned, I could be discouraged because now more times than not the result of some election goes opposite to my vote. Is my vote worth much?

What is one vote worth?

One vote is worth every drop of American blood, that has been shed throughout History to give me the right to vote.
One vote is worth the extent of the honor and the courage of every American, who has ever stood for the American ideal, a nation founded upon faith in the One True GOD.
One vote is worth the privilege of having a voice in a world, that increasingly demands silence out of all but the elite.

We each vote hoping for victory, but realizing even in defeat there is honor in faithfully exercising the right to vote.

There is an apocryphal story of an incident, that was to have taken place during the American Civil War. (I say apocryphal because it's validity has yet to be verified in my hearing, but the idea is so timely, that it remains worth the telling.)

The Southern Rebels were being defeated in a certain battle. As a result they were in retreat, being splintered into smaller and smaller groups of soldiers by the mile. One small group of four or five saw a farmhouse and decided to try to take refuge there, hoping they might find a kind heart as well, who would provide food and water, and maybe a place to rest for a little while.

They knocked furtively on the door. Granny Jo opened the door with a big ol' smile and welcomed the soldiers into her home. For the next little while, they told granny their tale of woe, watching her smile turn into stronger and stronger levels of anger.

Finally, Granny Jo had had ENOUGH! She popped onto her feet, marched to the door, yanked it open and grabbed a broom on the way out. The soldier boys hollered after Granny Jo, "Granny, what do you think you're going to do? You can't defeat the whole Union army with a broom!"

Resolutely, Granny Jo spit back, "Naw, I cain't, but I can show 'em whose side I'm on!"

What is one vote worth?

We show the world, whose side we are on, while honoring those, who gave us the right to do so.