To say 2020 has been an impactful year would be a gross understatement. And there are still a couple of more months to go. Nov. 3 is probably going to hold the most impact.
Why? Because that’s Election Day in the United States.
I’ve participated in each of them since given the right to vote. I always voted my conscience versus the official line set down by a political party.
The current divide we are currently experiencing between those parties is disturbing but, at the same time, exciting because we see more participation in the voting process than ever before.
When you stop to think about the history of the world, the United States is just a baby compared to other civilized countries.
The American Revolutionary War was fought in the 1700s, and people laid down their lives for freedom from British rule in our new country.
That’s not that long ago when only 13 original states banded together to preserve the independence and sovereignty.
And for all you millennials, that’s what is significant about the 4th of July and the Declaration of Independence of 1776.
I say that because I think we have lost sight in many ways of the value of our freedom here in the United States and what it took to get here.
I think of a comedian who went down the Oceanside pier and asked kids what the Fourth of July meant and why we celebrated it in America. Google that.
It isn’t reassuring.
The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution came in 1870 and prohibited the federal government and each state from denying citizens the right to vote based on that citizen’s race, color, or previous servitude condition — meaning slavery. We’ve heard a lot about this lately.
And what about what it took for women to be given the right to vote? It took nearly 100 years — decades of organized protests — to win that right through a women’s suffrage movement that began before the Civil War.
It wasn’t until 1920 that the Nineteenth Amendment allowed women to vote.
So if you start to think that people laid down their lives and went to jail during protests, that what they were fighting for must have had some level of importance. Vital importance. It’s a right and a privilege; it represents liberty.
Many religious and spiritual people will decline or reject the vote and any politics because they think it’s all in God’s hands or being spiritual; they are not of this world, or their voice won’t make a difference.
That in itself is freedom because of the sacrifices made to have the right to vote.
But what I’m suggesting is making the freedom to vote a spiritual practice. Can spirituality and politics co-exist? The Pledge of Allegiance reads in part: “… one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The definition of indivisible is unable to be divided or separated. Hmmm. Under God … well, there’s that.
And liberty and justice for all is why we vote. To maintain it. To make sure it really is for all. That those who fought for the right to claim this way of living, this right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness as God-given, was not in vain.
So please get out and vote. Vote your conscience. Not just your conscience; your soul’s conscience. This time it is beyond political party. Ensure the candidates and propositions line up with your core values and how you want to live in this world.
How you want to see the world for future generations.
Envision that it is possible to live as One, United, Indivisible, Soul on Fire ambassadors for God, the country, the world, the planet and the future.
Your vote matters spiritually as well as politically.
