At the age of 16-17 I used to proudly say what can a single vote do, why bother. Typical edgy pseudo intellectual stuff.
I had arrogantly dismissed Handmaid’s Tale as baseless fearmongering when studying it for English Literature - no way the world could trend towards that direction after decades of progress. Yet here we are.
My Asian immigrant parents never really impressed upon me the importance of voting, as it’s quite typical for immigrants to keep their heads down, not make a fuss and carry on.
Two girls in my life sat me down and informed me calmly about the amount of privilege I frankly had, and went through the reasons why voting as an individual was important.
I took what they said to heart and have never missed a single election or vote held. But now I realise I have still been complacent.
To my fellow sisters, I am sorry to have let you down.
Because going out to vote - that’s just the bare minimum of what is acceptable. I have to be going out checking on my friends, being the sounding board, rallying cry, convincing them to head to the polling stations and not just give in to apathy or disillusionment. After all, that’s exactly what those pulling the strings are banking on.
As an Asian brother I also promise to do better and will strive to go above and beyond going forward in invigorating those around me, staving off voter apathy all around, letting fellow young people of age know we ride for ruin and the world’s ending.
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u/Yubisaki_Milk_Tea Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24
Amen.
At the age of 16-17 I used to proudly say what can a single vote do, why bother. Typical edgy pseudo intellectual stuff.
I had arrogantly dismissed Handmaid’s Tale as baseless fearmongering when studying it for English Literature - no way the world could trend towards that direction after decades of progress. Yet here we are.
My Asian immigrant parents never really impressed upon me the importance of voting, as it’s quite typical for immigrants to keep their heads down, not make a fuss and carry on.
Two girls in my life sat me down and informed me calmly about the amount of privilege I frankly had, and went through the reasons why voting as an individual was important.
I took what they said to heart and have never missed a single election or vote held. But now I realise I have still been complacent.
To my fellow sisters, I am sorry to have let you down.
Because going out to vote - that’s just the bare minimum of what is acceptable. I have to be going out checking on my friends, being the sounding board, rallying cry, convincing them to head to the polling stations and not just give in to apathy or disillusionment. After all, that’s exactly what those pulling the strings are banking on.
As an Asian brother I also promise to do better and will strive to go above and beyond going forward in invigorating those around me, staving off voter apathy all around, letting fellow young people of age know we ride for ruin and the world’s ending.