One Webster's Dictionary definition for being in a rut is "a routine procedure, situation, or way of life that has become uninteresting and tiresome." Many of us cherish our work rut where we go to work, go home and collect our paychecks.
Unfortunately, for many the rut no longer exists. Many local companies have had to lay off their best workers due to lack of business. To put it mildly, our present economy stinks and we are all standing down wind.
When the economy turns around, and it will, is your employer going to be in a position to hire you back? This question is one question you personally have control over. How? Vote. You have the chance to correct the wrongs against the younger working majority which consists of you.
We have people who want to put all Sustainable Growth Initiative people in the commissioners seats. Should this happen when the economy turns around we will notice no difference. Our lovely county will turn into a desert wasteland of old folks that are retired and no longer need to work for a living. I am not saying that every retired person out in the voting public is SGI, but the majority of SGI is derived from the retired element. SGI is so adamant about controlling building and therefore growth in our county that they have paid each of their three commissioner candidates $5,000 apiece.
The commissioners, for whom I am voting, are Blaine Spires, Mike Olson and Greg Lynn. These three men do not want to cover the Valley in housing developments but they do want to see land owners maintain their constitutional rights, have our Valley grow, prosper and keep our working force intact.
If you starve your child, it will die. If a community has no progress, it will die.
Apathy according to Webster's Dictionary is "lack of interest in anything, or the absence of any wish to do anything."
Your apathy in regards to voting will have dire results: you may have to commute to a job should you wish to continue to live is this area, possible loss of your home because you do not have a job that will pay your mortgage, the continued emotional stress of knowing you are unable to pay your bills and the emotional stress on your relationship(s). The No. 1 killer of marriages and relationships is money.
Many Americans died during the Revolutionary War which created the building blocks of the democracy we have today and the right for free land-owning white males to vote. More people died during the Civil War that gave us the 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment gave all men, regardless of race or prior servitude, the right to vote. Women did not receive full suffrage until 1920, after WWI.
Ladies, it was a long up hill struggle for us to achieve our right to vote. We were threatened, ridiculed and murdered during this fight for equal voting rights - please take advantage of this right. Lastly, in 1924, the Indian Citizenship Rights Act passed giving Native Americans the right to vote. Note how long it took to reach each milestone and the efforts required.
The moral to my diatribe is to raise awareness of the important issues facing us and their effect on our future. Apathy will keep us in this economic freefall if we do not pick Commissioners who will look out for us and keep our best interests in mind as well as those of our community. Apathy will keep us in this economic freefall even when the economy returns to what it once was if you do not get out and vote. Get out of your rut. Vote.
- Pamela A. Beekhof is a Ruhenstroth resident.
