Readers of The Cardinal Club know I grew up in a political family. Open any closet in our house and you could find an assortment of bumperstickers, pins and campaign fliers from local, state and federal elections from years passed, as well as boxes of the latest paraphernalia too. I spent every campaign season I can remember engaged in some effort to “get out the vote”; canvassing neighborhoods, shaking hands, handing out bumperstickers at the county fair and even manning phone banks late into the evening. I didn’t always like it or know if it made a difference. As a kid I didn’t really understand the stakes. I just did it because it was expected of me.

A few years ago I was at a meeting at one of the colleges where I teach. The topic was service learning, something I’d been incorporating into my classes for a while now. The students engage in service in the community as part of the course. They work in places like food banks, with the local senior center, or in Head Start classrooms. Through their service they learn about the needs of the community and they become part of the solution. I’m a staunch believer in service. I believe it’s each of our responsibility to give back to the world we live in. Big or small, our actions have the potential to make our community (both local and larger) a better place. The person leading the meeting asked us who’d taught us about service. Where we’d learned the value of giving back to our community.

I thought about my Dad.

My father was the person who taught me what public service is about. About men and women who make the commitment to represent us in government. To make decisions that improve the lives of the people they are elected to represent. That’s what my Dad did.

Think about that. The men and women we elect each November pledged to represent all of us. Not themselves. Or their pet projects. Or just the people who voted for them. They are elected to represent all of us. And yes, before you say anything… I know I sound pollyannish. Naive, even. Politics has become ugly and divisive. Rife with dishonesty and corruption and blatant grabs for power. Red or Blue. Conservative or Liberal. Right wing, left wing or centrist. Sometimes it seems easier to avoid the whole thing. But it doesn’t have to be like that. We don’t have to continue to let that happen. Voting is our right. The way we get to weigh in on what we want the country to look like. We get to choose who we want to represent us in that process.

When they’ve lived up to that obligation, we can reward them with reelection. But when they don’t, voting is the only way we have to hold them accountable for breaking those promises.

What if rather than get mired in the partisan muck, we figured out what matters to us? What we want our lives and communities and county to look like. What if, instead of the false choices our politicians try to ram down our throats we cast our votes for the things we believe in. Healthcare? Education? A living wage? Climate change? Economic opportunity? What if we held the hope that things could get better? What if we acted accordingly?

What if we all voted?

It’s up to each of us. Don’t opt out. Decide what matters to you and use your voice.

Vote.

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