I have voted for 16 presidents and consider voting in a presidential election one of the most important things an American can do. Allow me to repeat some of what I wrote before the election of 2012.
Just as parents have the responsibility to raise their children and send them to school you also have the responsibility to BE A GOOD CITIZEN and MODEL GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
One four-letter word should definitely be used in front of the children. The kids should see you do it from the time they are toddlers. You should talk about doing it in front of them. You should remind them that they will do it when they are grown up and they must do it every time they can, carefully and thoughtfully.
The word? VOTE!
Parents complain how hard it is to raise kids today because of problems in our neighborhoods, schools, communities. Parents ask me, "What can we do?" My one-word answer? VOTE!
I get cross when I read that voter turnout is low. I am dismayed about voter apathy when so many decisions vitally important to families must be made. I go ballistic when a parent tells me, "I don't bother to vote” because it gives such a negative message to their children. And I feel like crying when a woman or a member of a minority group doesn't vote. When my mother was born, women could not vote. It was 22 years before women won the right to vote in 1920 and it was 1965 before blacks were guaranteed the right to vote in all the states.
Don't try to tell me you're too busy or your vote doesn't matter. Do your parental duty and VOTE!
Involve your children in the entire voting process from registration, how to get information about candidates and propositions and how to thoughtfully make our decisions. Take your children with you to vote if possible because children who see their parents vote are more likely to vote themselves when they are adults. If you vote by mail involve the children. Show them how you fill out your ballot and get it in on time.
Studies have shown that people who don't vote feel they don't know enough about candidates or issues to do so. Yes, it takes work to become an informed voter but it's your job and your duty as a concerned parent to do so. It’s especially hard these days because of TV, social media, and talk radio to sort out rant from reason. But try. Teach your children how to distinguish between political ads and paid political programming. Teach them about the importance of fact checking and paying attention to who is saying or writing what they hear or read. There is a lot of outrageous stuff out there. We have morphed from political dialogue about issues (helpful) to political character assassination (not helpful) although some may find it entertaining.
I feel the election of 2016 is both the most unusual and most important in the history of our nation. Since 1989 I have kept my column as apolitical as possible so that I could be helpful to all parents regardless of their political affiliation. But this year I am exercising my first amendment rights to speak my mind. I have a message for each and every parent.
Think of your children and grandchildren before you make up your mind. Don’t be frightened by oft-repeated sound bites. For the sake of your children and all children vote for pro-family, pro-children, pro-education, pro-community, pro-environment candidates. Children are our future. The family is the vital infrastructure children need in order to grow, develop, and thrive. Without resources for parents, quality schools, and a healthy environment America’s children may not get the nurturing and knowledge they need to compete for jobs and become good citizens and they may have to live and raise their children on a noxious planet.
Last week I watched the heartwarming opening ceremonies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I saw the 99-year-old daughter of a slave and her adorable great-granddaughter ring the bell from the first Baptist church organized by and for African Americans. The camera showed the outside of the beautiful new building with the Washington Monument gleaming in the background. I wept. I love my country. I believe in the enlightened ideas of our Founders and the ideals we live by today. Yes we have problems (certainly enslaving other human beings was atrocious) but we manage to solve them. As Martin Luther King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
I believe, despite the noise of today’s social media hysteria, we have been strengthened by diversity and tolerance and political dialogue.
Parents: Vote carefully, very carefully. This is both your right and your responsibility. Talk not only to people on your “side” but to those with opposing views. Try to find common ground. Hint: the future of our children is a great place to start. Work to help us come together as a people.
And for those who do not have children (or have raised their own and are thinking now about their own old age) I will quote Marion Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund (where Secretary Clinton once worked) who urged her audience to be involved in issues of children, families, and education, “The child you ignore today may be the one caring for you in the nursing home tomorrow!”
I will vote for Secretary Clinton because she is pro-children and family. I hope you think of the children and do the same.
