TIME TO VOTE: You have the POWER TO CHANGE THE GAME!!

There is something you can do that is so powerful, opportunistic people will lie, steal, flatter, and cheat to gain it or to stop it.  It is called voting!  That which is not there cannot be counted. We each have one vote. The only players that are pursued in a sports arena are the players with the power to change the game.  On Election Day, each registered voter becomes a “certified player!”  If it takes all day and all night, when the election is over, you should reserve the right and the responsibility to proudly wear the peach sticker that says: “I’m a Georgia Voter!!”

 As we approach the final hours before the 2012 Presidential election; I find myself wondering if this will be the year that people realize that the candidate is “self.”  It is about the individual voter and what each voter thinks about him or herself as a life contender.  Yes, there are candidates for president on a national level and other critical leadership choices on a state and local level; but ultimately, it is the one time that each registered voter gets a chance to vote for “personal leadership; your personal best.”

 To me, it is an esteem issue.  Three kinds of people:

 1) Low Self Esteem:  Those who say, my one vote will not make a difference will be displaying a behavior that they probably inadvertently live every day of their lives.  They have never realized that no one can stand up in their shoes but them.  They don’t know that “one vote” is all anyone has and everyone needs.  No “individual” has the power to make a “collective” vote; it must be joined with others.

 2) High Self Esteem:  Those who say “I am going to cast my vote and trust and believe that others who think like me will do the same.”  These people know that when the election is over, they did make a difference—to themselves and to the society in which they live. 

Regardless of whether their candidate of choice won or lost; these people know they were in the game. 

They have what I call “audacity.”  They have the audacity to believe that they, alone, can and will make a difference.

 3) Just floating with the crowd Esteem:  Those who have been given the gift of making a difference but instead of maintaining responsibility and accountability for that privilege; become targets for the hustlers of “unclaimed identity.”  They just look and listen for the group that seems to know what is going on and they join in with the one thing they have, their personal right to make a difference.

Some call themselves “Liberals,” some call themselves "Independents" and some “Conservatives,” but in the end; they just want to be a part of the crowd, any crowd.  How sad.

 I am reminded of a publication:  “The Psychology of Tyranny” by S. Alexander Haslam & Stephen D. Riecher

http://www.learntoquestion.com/resources/database/psychology%20of%20tyranny.pdf

 While voting takes tyranny to a whole new level, to me the impact is not only the same; it is worse because there is only the deception of self; trusting other people’s judgment over their own, and “donating” personal identity to fit in.

 I fail to see how large numbers of apparently civilized, intelligent, and decent people can go along with such obvious and self serving self deception.  These people watch sports and know that the only players that are pursued are the players with the power to change the game.  On Election Day, each registered voter becomes a “certified player!”

 As responsible voters, we have the power to shape our own fate.  Not through the candidates, but through our own decisiveness.  Leadership is an inside job; it is what happens when no one is looking, it is the person who decides that I can not win if I do not play. 

Like the odds of the lottery, the odds are huge; but the person without a ticket is guaranteed NOT to win.  It is the same with voting.  There is power in the hand of every citizen.  November 6, 2012, each person is given a chance go through a pebble in the sea of choice.

Sadly, it is the same people who underestimate their power as the voter that becomes the perpetual complainer after the election.  At this time, they find that not only did they not do their job to shape the outcome of the election, as a “non-player,” no one respects them as a contender for any impactful activity after the election.  It is about identity.  I would rather be the one who made the wrong choice than the one who made no choice.

Individually and collectively, we must be prepared to use our collective power to challenge the status quo and try to improve the position of our respective environment.

We must not lose the capacity for judgment believing that “one vote does not count.” It counts as much as the person waking up each day in your bed, the person that is driving your car, and the person eating your meals. It is the ultimate power of one!!

There is something you can do that is so powerful, opportunistic people will lie, steal, flatter, and cheat to gain it or to stop it.  It is called voting!  That which is not there cannot be counted.  If it takes all day and all night, when the election is over, you should reserve the right and the responsibility to day “I am a Georgia Voter!!”