Vote!
Vote!
Make your mark.
Poke a hole.
Pull the lever.
Vote!
People fought.
People died.
So we, the people,
can decide
who’ll represent
our point of view
and do the work
we need them to.
Claim your right.
Raise your voice.
Make it count.
Vote!
Whether you’re voting for class president or a member of the U.S. Senate, use your power, your right, your voice and VOTE!
That’s how democracy works. If you’re a parent and you can swing it, take your child with you. I always went with my parents. They made it a priority to teach me that voting was not just my right but my responsibility. It may have been tiresome to wait in line, but it felt special and grown-up to go with them. Now that I’m the grown-up it still feels special every single time. Every time I vote I think of all the people who can’t–people who don’t live in democracies, people who have served time and live in states where they are temporarily or permanently disenfranchised, people who have come for the safety and opportunity provided by living in the United States but aren’t yet entitled to vote. So please make sure you’re registered and vote!
Elizabeth Steinglass © 2018
Thanks, Liz! I loved your poem’s call to action as well as your comments about voting – no matter how sad or cynical I’m feeling about the state of our country, the act of voting gives me hope.
Thanks, Melissa. I love the idea of voting being a hopeful act.
Love it!!
Thanks, Wendy!
Wonderful–and should be widely read. I hope you’ll share it with folks in the poetry friday list.
Thanks, Buffy, I will!
Love this poem and everything it stands for, Liz!
Thanks, Michelle!
That is getting an important message out there, Liz. Nicely done!
Thanks, Rosi!
Every day I am thankful to live in a country where this is our right. Thank you for your poem, Liz! xo
Thanks, Irene!
I can hear this catch short poem chanted in class – a voting rap, Liz.
It should be adopted as the official poem of the Kids Voting! campaign, if you have that
in your area schools? It’s a challenge to not only bring your kids to the poll when you vote,
but before that, they have a mock election on the same candidates, right in school.
We have it here in Leon County/Florida.
I. Vote. For. Your. Poem: Vote!
And great bi-lingual voting sticker, too 🙂
Thanks, Jan, I don’t think we do have that here, but it sounds like a fabulous idea.
Yay! I’m with you 100%, Liz! We’ve already voted from Switzerland for the midterms. Our right and responsibility. =)
I used to love voting by absentee ballot from Hong Kong. It felt so special to vote by mail and feel that connection to home.
YES! A rousing poem, Liz. Fingers crossed for good midterm election results!
Yes!
I went with my parents, too, Liz. I received my ballot yesterday! Will finish it up tomorrow & take it in! It’s a wonderfully inspiring poem. If only everyone knew how hard people fought (fight!) for the right to vote. I am grateful!
You are so right! It isn’t just fought, it’s fight! I wish I had put that in the poem somehow.
AMEN! We have a day off today and it’s on the top of the to-do list. We’re lucky that the early voting center is very close to where we live. May the tide turn on November 6!
Yes! Such a great reminder to spread the message. I always took my daughter to vote with me–and now as a college student she is faithful about requesting her absentee ballot and researching candidates before each election.