Letter

Don’t Just Vote for Yourself: Vote for the People You’ll Never Meet

To the People:

You have been told this is the most important election in your lifetime. That we either have to save democracy or destroy what’s left of it. That we either have to save the planet or destroy it. That we either have to destroy racism or let it uphold nearly every institution in the nation and in the world.

It’s apocalyptic.

It’s frightening.

So, naturally, you wonder: how will this affect me? How will these polices affect me? This goes through everyone’s mind — it’s not selfish, it’s just natural. A reflex. But we are not animals, we are humans charged with caring for the world and each other. This is not our burden but our obligation, our responsibility. I want you to think about how the policies you vote for will affect someone else.

How will the policies you support affect a single mother who has trouble going back to college because she has to raise a child that she never could have afforded in the first place? Were there safety nets in place to help her get the same opportunities as everyone else?

How will they affect a veteran who was just discharged from the military? Will he, she, they, be qualified for a job outside of the service? Will he, she, they, be able to rely on the government to give adequate healthcare and support?

How will they affect students in debt and students who are working so hard just to be able to say they were in student loan debt because it means they’re educated and that’s just the price we pay now?

How will they affect the working class who work for low wages because what they do is “unskilled”? The working class whose jobs have been put on the line and who can get fired at any time a company wills it and who break their bodies just so we can break bread?

How will they affect non-American citizens? Iraqi citizens? Palestinians? Chinese citizens? Filipino citizens? How will they influence the world, how we’re perceived and what we will do for peace and unity?

Like everyone else I scrolled through social media to take my mind off the world, but I stumbled across a post about the difference between rights and obligations. From an indigenous elder of Cherokee descent, Stan Rushworth: Instead of thinking you are born with rights, choose to think you are born to serve obligations to past, present, and future generations, and the planet herself.

I think it’s wise to listen to a true American. Don’t you?

I urge us all to think about voting not just for ourselves, but for the people we don’t know, for the people we’ll probably never meet, maybe even for the people we don’t even like all the time. We have an obligation to take care of each other, so let’s keep that in our hearts and minds and souls when we go to the polls.

Sincerely,

Curtis Francisco-Sarmiento Yap