USE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE
Dyson Cleans Up • Published 14 Apr 2010 11:03
SOME of you may have noticed that there is an election campaign going on.
It has become something of a done thing amongst many people to question why we should bother voting as all politicians are "as bad as one another" and not worth the bother.
Yet there are always people who will say that previous generations fought too hard for their vote not to take part in the democratic process.
I agree with that sentiment, along with the one that places us as citizens. If anything I would find more things for us to vote on rather than simply rolling out every four or five years.
Down through history the role of the ordinary citizen has been inextricably linked with the perception - if not necessarily the true reality - that they can make their voices heard.
When Kings ruled much of Europe through their "divine right" the people were at their most downtrodden.
Yet, the ancient democracies of Greece and Rome placed the vote right at the heart of society.
And the pride that people had in that meant that they felt in their hearts a true part of a living process - not a subject like in later Kingdoms.
A perfect example of this importance came in the voting for the Consuls (the two leading magistrates) in the Roman Republic. Such was the set up of dividing the Roman people into "Centuries" of various classes, the act of voting meant that that the voting power of a rich "Century" containing perhaps a couple of hundred Romans was equal to that of a poor one containing many thousands of people.
And during voting the rich "Centuries" passed their ballots first, meaning that most results were known long before the poorer Romans had a chance to vote. Yet vote they did.
Forgetting the inherent unfairness of the system, a vote back then meant even less than many would perceive the value of theirs has today.
But that did not put them off, some even travelling hundreds of miles to vote.
Their vote, for all its relative worthlessness, was what made them a citizen of Rome.
It elevated them and gave them pride.
I believe we should value our vote and use it. Only those willing to use it have the right to moan about what the process delivers us.
This blog appeared in Irvine Times 14 Apr 10
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