AmberWapathy

On Monday November 13th I didn’t vote. That’s right. I didn’t vote. I can see the collective head shaking and hear the chorus of tsk-tsking as I write this. Yes, I know. I am a negligent citizen. Even worse: I am a liar because I’ve been telling people that I forgot, that in the busy-ness of my life, it just slipped my mind and I didn’t even realize that it was election day until it was too late. But the truth is, I didn’t forget, and it hadn’t slipped my mind. I just didn’t take the time to vote.

It’s not that I don’t care. I do. Quite a lot, in fact. I care about this city that I’ve been living in for over a year now. I care about issues like public transportation, taxes, public safety and waste management. In particular, I care very passionately about larger issues that extend beyond my local community- the environment, sustainability, poverty, the marginalized in society- and I try to educate and foster awareness in myself and others on a daily basis in order to make informed choices about the things that I do and consume so that I can work towards effecting positive change.

But when it comes to how my vote for a local politician might actually play a role in affecting these issues and bring about change, I just can’t seem to make the connection. When I hear politicians speak on the CBC in interviews or debates my ears close. When I read articles in the newspaper or online my eyes glaze over. My mind drifts off into thoughts of what I’m going to make for dinner or the last Rumi poem I read that brought me to the brink of transcendence and back. With a hungry belly or a mind turned towards more otherworldly things, it’s no wonder that the often disingenuousness and speciousness of politicians leaves me cold and feeling alienated, as if we are standing on opposite sides of an unbridgeable gap.

I think this is what is called ‘voter apathy’. And if it is, how do I overcome it? How do I educate myself enough and become familiar enough with the politicians and their platforms to be able to make an informed choice and meaningful vote? How do I make the connection and bridge the gap? Because I could force myself to go through the motions of voting, but if I don’t really understand who or what it is that I am voting for, I feel that my vote counts for about as much as if I didn’t vote at all.

And I think that is why I didn’t vote on November 13th; not because I don’t care, but because I don’t know. I don’t know who the politicians really are, or what they really stand for, or what they can do for me and my community, or how they can help further the causes and issues that I believe in, and nothing I hear on the radio or read in the paper seems to answer those questions.

Maybe if I met a politician on the street and asked him or her what they liked to eat for dinner, or how they felt about Rumi, I might feel a little more connected to them. Maybe if I knew a little more about who they are as people, real people, we could build a bridge and meet somewhere in the middle and thus, I would be more inclined to vote.

http://www.morguefile.com/images/storage/d/digiology/lowrez/digiology_P1010012_i.JPG