My good friend, Susan Hyatt, wrote something on her Instagram feed last week that resonated deeply with me. She said, “Neutral women do not change the tide of history. I have no interest in being neutral.”
I, too, have no interest in being neutral. I know it may be hard to believe about me now, but this was not always the case.
For a good portion of my life I wasn’t connected to my voice. Like many women in my generation, I was raised to be a “good girl,” to look pretty and mostly be seen and not heard. I used to think that other people’s opinions were more important than my own, and I would twist myself into a pretzel to make sure others around me were happy.
As I’m sure you can imagine, that didn’t work out so well for me.
After many years of soul-searching, reading hundreds of books, a ton of work with amazing therapists, coaches and healers, little by little, I started to connect to my voice. And the funny thing is, once you connect and start to use it – even a little bit – you can’t stop. Once you figure out what you care about and are really passionate about, you use your voice. At least that’s been the case for me.
As many of you know, I’ve been extremely vocal here on the blog and my social media platforms since a craven administration hijacked our country almost two years ago. I wrote about it here, here, here and also here. Many have asked me how I’m comfortable using my platform and speaking out about politics and my answer is often, “With literally everything at stake, how can we not talk about politics??”
Political apathy is dangerous, and plenty of politicians are counting on your apathy in this midterm election tomorrow.
Here’s the truth:
A father whose special needs son relies heavily on his health insurance cannot be apathetic
A transgender teen who has experienced bullying at school and is contemplating suicide cannot be apathetic
A young man whose grandmother was murdered in cold blood with an AR-15 while worshipping at her synagogue cannot be apathetic
A woman who is three months pregnant and just found out her baby has severe birth defects cannot be apathetic
An LBGTQ man who has served in the U.S. military for the last seven years cannot be apathetic
A DREAMER who has lived and worked in the U.S. for more than two decades cannot be apathetic
Parents of young children who are finally realizing that it is inevitable that their kids will inherit a severe and potentially fatal environmental crisis cannot be apathetic
WE cannot be apathetic.
WE cannot be neutral.
WE are better than this.
WE must collectively use our voices and VOTE.
Today it’s up to you and me and everyone we know to save our democracy. You need to vote like your life – and the lives of those you love – depends on it. Because it does.
This is no time for “neutral.”
Please, VOTE.
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