Me: Hi everyone. My name is Eleanor. I’m 37 and I …. I …..
George: You can say it Eleanor, there’s a lot of people here in the same boat, be brave.
Me: This is so hard to admit, but, here we go. I’m 37 and … I’ve never voted. Not once. Not for anyone. Ever.
I won’t make excuses for my pre-2000 abandonment of my suffrage, but since moving to this county from England in 2001 I realize it will be many, many years before I can exercise my right again. I still have to pay taxes though, I still have to live with the decisions that other people have voted for. Is that right or wrong. As a permanent resident should I not get a say of some sort about what goes on in my community? Why can I not even sign an official petition? Do petitions even work?
I could make excuses for not participating in my community, that’s Hillcrest and has been ever since I came over here from London, but I don’t have any. I finish work at 2:30 PM and I do what I like. I moan about not having a voice yet I don’t even use mine to help those who don’t have one. Like most others, our community has problems from parking issues to people living on the streets; from littering to drug abuse, and from the height of a new office block to hate crimes against people who are gay.
I can’t even make the excuse that I’m shy, or not used to speaking out, or don’t know how to express myself in writing. As a scientist previously, and a medical writer now, I’ve given lectures to peers, to schoolchildren, and to community groups. I’ve written journal papers for scientists; newsletters for doctors, and reported for newspapers
Maybe my excuse is that I’m uninformed? No, that’s not good enough either. I watch BBC news twice a day; I try and read background information on current events; discuss them with my friends, sometimes arguing, sometimes getting carried away in our efforts to agree with each other; I’ve traveled beyond the Country of California, and I was taken on my first political march – protesting against nurses poor pay – by my mum when I was six.
I have no real excuses for what I haven’t done. Is it time to make up some new ones for what I won’t do? No. It’s time to do something dynamic so that I don’t need the excuses to back up my lack-of action, my lack of input and my lack of enthusiasm.