Election Day - Why Every Vote Counts

When I sat down to write this, I couldn't really find a good starting place, besides simply saying, "please go vote today.  I know that it is a General Election and not a National Presidential Election, but your vote still matters.  Go vote."  Truthfully, voting in today's election is probably even more important.  Here in Georgia, our Attorney General is still trying to keep the ban on marriage equality alive.  Today I got to cast my vote for someone who believes that the life I am building with N matters as much as my neighbors.  I got to have a say in the Superintendent that will be making education decisions for our state.  As a mom of a lil bug with a lot more years of schooling ahead of her, I want the person elected to have her best interest at heart.  I could go on but instead I will move on to the bulk of why I think voting matters.

We are a privileged bunch here in the United States.  We get to vote.  We could live in Saudi Arabia where women are not even allowed to drive a car.  Even better we could live in Yemen, which The Borgen Project called the "worst place to live as a woman."  They cannot leave the house without their husband's permission. In court of law, they are considered "half a person."  Unless their testimony is corroborated by a male's testimony it is generally dismissed.  Can you imagine?  The number of countries around the United States where violence against women is not only tolerated, but encouraged, is staggering.  It makes my stomach turn to think about how different my life could have been if I had been born where I was, when I was.

Women in the early 1900's worked their butts off here in order for us to be able to vote.  All they wanted was for their words to be counted.  For themselves, their daughters, and all the generations to come to have a say in the shaping of the nation they live in.   It is my duty as an American Woman to honor that work and raise my own voice at the ballot.  I couldn't be happier to continue their legacy and make the country that we live in a better place for my own daughter.  And when she is old enough to vote for herself, I pray that she will feel even stronger and more empowered to raise her own voice for the things that she believes in.

So...to sum it all up...please vote.