Voting: a democratic privilege we should protect | Letter
Published 12:00 pm Friday, May 20, 2016
The right, and the power, of voting is a bedrock of our democracy. But a small group of Mercer Island citizens backing private development on public parkland is encouraging citizens not only to refrain from voting, but to prevent others from voting.
Sure, it is easier not to sign a petition that would require a vote. But what are we teaching our children when we tell them we are against the vote, when we hand out flyers encouraging citizens not to sign a petition to put an initiative on the ballot, and when we post and wave signs encouraging citizens not to sign. What are we afraid of?
Shouldn’t we instead be teaching our students to exercise their right to vote, to support the foundation of our democracy and to demonstrate to them that we are eager to sign a petition seeking a public vote on an issue that concerns all citizens, present and future? Shouldn’t we be teaching them that they should do all in their power to protect the right of citizens to vote?
Signing the petition does not mean that you support the initiative. It simply is an affirmation that you believe in the power of the people, as did the writers of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Signing the petition means that the Protect our Parks initiative will go on the November ballot, at a cost of only $12,000 (as opposed to $70,000, which would be required for a special election), so that citizens can vote. Is $12,000 a fair exchange for bringing our community together, for finding out what the majority wants? A vote is especially important when not to have a vote may mean everyone losing almost an acre of parkland forever, in exchange for $1 a year for 80 years, plus taxpayers having to meet any annual deficits of the over $800,000 annual operating budget projected by the proposed leaseholder?
The summer of 1963, I worked in the civil rights movement in the south. While helping Americans register to vote, I faced violence, police brutality and gunshots into a church where we were meeting. I am surprised and saddened to have been the target of harassment at various places on the Island while seeking signatures to simply hold a vote, and to have had a sitting City Council member actively encouraging citizens not to sign the petitions I am holding. This is Mercer Island 2016, not Mississippi 1963. This is no time, or place, for encouraging citizens not to support an opportunity to vote.
Americans have fought for the right to vote. And they have died for it. To protect that right, we must exercise it. A sure way to lose a right is not to use the right.
Meg Lippert
Mercer Island
