Aug 6, 2020 3 min read

Voting never more crucial

Friends, awaken!

Our greatest danger is not coronavirus. Yes, what this pandemic is doing to our relatives, friends, and neighbors is tragic. But our greatest danger is the threats leveled against our democracy daily.

I took our democracy for granted. Did you? I thought that American institutions were strong enough to withstand any force. Although buffeted by the winds of wars and bigotry and civil unrest, America always seemed to steady itself and provide more safeguards and opportunities for our citizens. I believed, naively, that would continue.

I was wrong. Democracy is not something we can take for granted. In the last three and a half years cracks in our democracy have opened. Now it is up to us – you, me and every single American – to protect it with our votes.

Government is not some amorphous, shadowy cloud of laws and regulations. It is a group of people. People we choose to represent us. In November we must select leaders who have a vision for a more perfect union and the integrity to fight for that vision, not to enrich and empower themselves and their donors.

I believe nearly all of us want the same kind of nation. We want a government that:

• Provides a system that educates our children and prepares them to be good contributors to our communities;
• Provides the roads and infrastructure we need to be productive in our daily lives;
• Equips and trains those who care for their neighbors’ health and well-being, and a means for our neighbors to get that care;
• Will protect our nation from the adversaries of freedom, both foreign and domestic, who seek to influence us in secretive and subtle ways, as well as threaten us directly;
• Strengthens our faith in justice by fairly applying good laws to protect us while ensuring our individual freedoms;
• Applies the great wealth which our economy produces effectively and efficiently to best improve the lives of all of our communities;
• Helps provide better opportunities to serve the common good for all of us, including those of us who may have started with far less or have, perhaps, just lost the ability to be productive contributors.

When we cast our votes in November, we must choose leaders who are wise, moral, and intelligent men and women who will not be bought, fooled, conned, or corrupted.

We can save our democracy. Our votes have never been more crucial.

Janice Hatfield

Mt. Morris