Vote

When I was 18, it was understood I would register to vote. My Daddy insisted I get that voter registration card and that I use it. He never told me how to vote, but he insisted I exercise my right to vote. Through the years, I have felt gungho patriotism and downright apathy. Even when I doubted my vote mattered, I still cast it. 

So today as I sit and listen to the speakers talk about John Lewis, I realize voting matters more than ever. I will cast my vote. Daddy never told me how to vote or what to think. But he did teach me to know truth and goodness when I saw it and to recognize phoniness when it paraded as patriotism.

With all that said, I will say this, my Daddy would have liked a man like John Robert Lewis, for he was much like him. They could have talked and enjoyed each other’s company. My Daddy would not have liked Donald Trump. And Trump would have looked right past my Daddy who had little worldly means, was not a flashy man, and did not belong to the Country Club.

John Robert Lewis just had a wonderful celebration of life. It was similar to my Daddy’s – on a smaller worldly scale, but with the same big love and respect.

Daddy would not have bought into the fact that God chose Trump because my Daddy knew goodness. My Daddy was goodness. The things Trump has said and done would have embarrassed my Daddy. They disgust me. I was raised to expect better. And I do. Once my Daddy was talking about a boastful man known to use foul language. He explained it to me this way, “He has words in his mouth that I would never even hold in my hand.”

So, I will cast my vote for goodness this November 3 and I will pray and continue to believe in this United States of America. At the poll, you can look at my card, take my blood, test my DNA. I don’t care.  I will vote. We have a ways to go, but freedom is a work in progress and we must work together to form a more perfect union.