IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

Well, it’s done! I told myself that I wouldn’t do it, thought it a waste of time and it probably was, however my conscience made me comply. I got my act together, thought long and hard to make a decision and finally did it. I voted!

Does it make much difference who gets elected? Probably not but if we don’t like the present system then we have to try to change things and that means voting, if we don’t bother then we can’t blame anyone but ourselves.

Politicians probably go into their fight with the very best of intentions, they really want to effect change and make their part of the world a better place, however they soon realize that they are fighting an uphill battle that their best intentions are too hard to achieve and they have to just accept the fact that they are a tiny part of a huge machine that just keeps on turning the same way.

Listening to debates and long rambling promises and speeches really seems like a waste of time as, once a party is elected, nothing much seems to change. Each party inherits mistakes and debts from not just the last party in power but the past ten or twelve governments. The debts may accumulate and ideas may seem different but, really how much change can be effected in just a few years.

To get any party to really effect change, they should be in power for three or four terms as that time is needed to remedy past mistakes and get things moving in different directions, however, long before that happens, we vote them out in favour of promised better ideas.

The fact that our grandmothers and great grandmothers risked ridicule and social disgrace to chain themselves to railings and make big scenes, and in some cases risked life itself to make their voices heard, should be the fire that lights our own soul for social change. Men’s votes always counted but women were lesser beings, the weaker sex and, obviously, not sensible enough to be given the vote.

How disheartened those ladies would be if they knew that women of today didn’t care which party got in. The right to vote was won with much difficulty and we would be betraying those women of old if we didn’t get our act together and mark our cross on the slip of paper.

One vote doesn’t seem to make much difference so why should we bother? However, one vote can make the difference and we owe it to our ancestors and ourselves to make the effort to do it.

During my adult years I have really liked several politicians and have thought their views admirable and their conduct dignified. It is really sad to see them try to get their point across in a debate with someone from an opposing party, just to be faced with ridicule and not able to get their opinion heard because the behaviour of their opponent is appalling and overbearing. If a candidate will not let the person in opposition speak then what chance has anyone else to try and make their voice heard?

The first debate between Trump and Biden would have been laughable, if it hadn’t been so unbelievably awful. Luckily we do not have a part in the debacle that is American politics but do we have much better behaviour here? We, as voters are the only ones who can insist on making our politicians act in a responsible manner. If we can’t be bothered to mark our cross, we should not complain at the outcome.