I Voted Today

I voted in today's midterm elections this morning.

Voting in American elections is something most of us take for granted, but this time around, the stakes couldn't be higher. Will we citizens sit back and allow the person in the White House and his cronies in Congress to run roughshod over our constitutional rights? Will we allow him to continue his racist attacks and his violence-inciting words unchallenged?

This person has publicly questioned whether public protests should be allowed. He has attacked the family of a US soldier who died fighting tor his country and who happened to be Muslim. He has called the news media "the enemy of the people." He is sending thousands of troops to the US/Mexico border to confront migrants -- mostly women and children -- marching toward asylum in the US. He continually hurls insults at people he doesn't like, calling them 'Pocahontas' or 'a dog', among other insults. His followers, emboldened by his rhetoric, are increasingly taking actions against religious and ethnic minorities.

I haven't voted in a couple of city elections, but I always make a point of voting in state and federal elections. Just look what happened when millions of eligible voters didn't bother to vote in the 2016 presidential election. Of course, the 2018 midterms aren't a presidential election. But by voting wisely, we have the chance to at least put the brakes on the efforts of the party in power and its attempts to cut benefits to seniors, veterans and the most needy among us. We have the opportunity to restore a semblance of balance in Congress. We have a chance to say 'Enough is enough' when it comes to attempts to remove millions of people from the health insurance rolls. We have the chance to stop the rollback of environmental protections.We can say enough of cutting benefits while giving more and more money to the ultra rich.

Never have I valued the freedom to vote more than I did today. And never have I felt the importance of my vote as I did today. People around the world have fought, and died, for the right to vote. Voting is a precious right that we must not squander.