You go to a restaurant. It may be fast food or casual dining. You don’t scan the offerings posted on the wall. You don’t ask for a menu. Instead, you tell the cashier or server to “choose something for me.”
You go to get your car serviced and camp out in the waiting room. You have told the person who registered you: “Leave me alone. I’m going to watch the soap operas or the sports on the TV. Just bring me the bill when it’s ready and I’ll pay it, whatever it is.”
You go for your physical. Your doctor wants to sit down with you to review test results, but he/she finds that you skipped doing the tests. “Just write me a good prescription, Doc,” you say.
Really? I don’t think so. I think you follow a very different process when you engage in those activities. I think you look at the menu. I think you check the prices. I think you want to know what they’re going to do with your car. I think you get the tests done before you sit down with your doctor, and you make sure that any medication changes are explained to you.
But, here we are, and it’s primary election season. We began “early voting” this week. Supporters for various candidates have perhaps called you, knocked on your door, offered you information on their candidate’s positions, but, you answer, “No, I don’t vote in the primary. I vote in the general election in November.”
If that’s the way you operate, you are doing what you would never do for something far less important: You are giving away your power. Our track record in Lynn and in Massachusetts for primary elections is very poor — make that “abysmal” when it comes to going to vote, especially going to vote in the primary.
What’s so special about the primary? It determines whose names will appear on the ballot in November. It creates the “menu.” If the candidate does not win the primary in his/her party, he/she doesn’t get to be on the ballot in November. Do you see the parallel now? If you let other people make that decision for you; if you skip voting in the primary, you are just like the people I cited in the three analogies. And you know this … yes, you do. If your boss tells you that X is your primary job, you do it first. You don’t think, “Oh, well … if I get to it. If I have time …”
Voting is your Primary job. Be smart. Give it thought. Do it! And encourage your friends and neighbors. It is more important than any of those other choices you/we make.
This is Early Voting Week. You can go to City Hall to cast your ballot all week. Tuesday, March 3rd is election day. If you haven’t done early voting, that’s your last shot. Take it!
Mary Sweeney
Lynn