Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Free

I voted this morning. I had wanted to vote early and didn't get to it. So today I was worried the lines would be long. I left the house early, running out while Josh was still getting ready for work so he could be with Kate. (She's not registered to vote yet.) But I forget that I live in Kerrville. There was one other man there while I was there. And we used paper ballots! Lately I have gotten used to the computer ballots. Funny.

I got to thinking about my view of voting. I've grown up at a time and in a country where voting has always been free - free from cost, free from hassle, free from manipulation, free of persecution. We complain about having to wait in line. Registering to vote is easier than renewing a driver's license or getting a library card.

I take all of that for granted. I am largely ignorant of the challenges, abuses, and struggles women less than a century ago in this country endured in order to win the right to vote.

I forget that right now, in other countries, people are beaten for casting a vote. People are willing to walk miles to get to a polling location. Women still face abuse for trying to vote.

May I grow to not take my freedoms for granted and to use them to influence toward good and the growth of God's kingdom.

1 comment:

Melanie said...

Wonderful point Sarah! I often forget what all women in this country have been through to get to where we are today. I remember once, in the RAC at SWBTS, while I was working out I watched a biography on Susan B. Anthony and it made me cry to realize what all she had been through so that we could have the rights we now have :)