Election over, now let’s thank those who made it possible
What a great turnout this week’s election was! After two long years of listening and reading about campaigns, we voters were finally able to put our liberty into action. Whether or not your candidate won, the few minutes you spent casting your vote were spent on sacred ground–hallowed by the sacrifice of a few for the greater good of their countrymen.
Politics has seemed to make a mockery of our right to vote over the past 40 or so years and much more recently. Almost every time an election rolls around–national, state and local–it seems to get ugly. Life-long friends become bitter enemies over their choices for candidate or cause. Workplaces are divided and workers become suspicious of other’s intentions. Even some families are pulled apart because of ideological differences. Destruction of the opponent or cause becomes more of a focus than merit-based winning of votes. We argue more about why we shouldn’t elect a particular candidate than about why we should vote for one.
And, we owe it all to our military veterans. They have fought in wars in lands far away from home so that voting, for instance, remains one of the rights of American citizens. Our veterans have ensured that our liberties will be sustained and, in many cases, in spite of the threats to those liberties that our own government poses from time to time. We can argue and haggle and fight all we want to about who will win or who’s the best choice, but we would not be able to if not for our courageous and heroic military veterans who love freedom more than servitude and who love country more than self.
Tuesday, November 11 is Veterans Day in America. Breathe the fresh fall air, complain about the government and/or the election, and thank a veteran for your freedom to do so.
We also encourage you to attend one of the many Veterans Day programs that will be held throughout Copiah County and central Mississippi. By doing so, you may just be reminded once again who the real caretakers of American liberty truly are.
Joe Buck Coates
ads894@bellsouth.net