The Right Requires Responsibility

With Super Tuesday approaching, and the General Election after that, it is vital that everyone who is able and willing should vote for the candidate who they feel will get this country to the place it needs to be.

This is a hard-earned right, fought and died for by our Patriotic predecessors and established by our Founding Fathers. However, with this right, as with all rights, comes the responsibility to do the right thing.

I would encourage everyone to get out there and learn about the candidates. Do your research. There are plenty of online sources, from the media outlets to meetup groups, Wikipedia to official campaign pages. Learn where each candidate stands on the issues. Evaluate whether their beliefs and goals are aligned with your own. Don't merely cast your vote for the frontrunner or the person voted "most likely to..." unless you can stand behind that person and be united with one voice.

If you aren't sure what the candidates stand for, and don't have any official preference other than "I like his hair" or "He is energetic," or "I've heard his name a lot," I would encourage you to do the world a favor and stay home on polling day.

Casting a vote blindly just because you can, or because everyone else is doing it is dangerous, and wrong.

Imagine if you were walking down the street, and you saw a group of people pulling on a rope. These people were grunting, and struggling, and pulling with all of their might. Now imagine you asked these people, "Why are you doing that?" to which they answered, "Because we can, and you can too!"

Would you join in and pull the rope, unaware of what was on the end or what the ultimate goal was?

Suppose with your help, the group was able to pull the rope all the way in...at which point you found that you had just assisted them in hauling an enormous ticking time bomb into the center of town. Would you feel that you had accomplished something good? Or would you have now endangered everyone around you because you blindly exercised a right without practicing responsibility?

I encourage you to think about this for the rest of the day, and ask yourself, "Am I pulling blindly?" or do you know what is on the end of that rope?

Maybe it's something that will save the day. Maybe something that will destroy us all.

It's up to you to figure it out.