Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Editorial • Election Day

Publisher’s note: This editorial originally appeared in the Tuesday, June 2, 2008 edition of the Lassen County Times.

It’s Election Day — the day we all hear the people’s voice and bow to their mighty will.

The American political experiment that began more than 230 years ago created a republic devoted to serve the needs of its people. Most importantly, it gave all of us a new opportunity to have a say in the affairs of state and to elect our fellow citizens who would then serve our needs as they sit in the governmental offices to which we elected them.

We should never forget the bravery of those patriots who charted our nation’s course in its infancy. Had they failed, they almost surely would have lost both their lives and their fortunes. They rightly rejected the notion of kingly rule that had prevailed throughout most of history because they believed the people themselves deserved to have a say in the conduct of their own affairs.

Even more, they believed each of us had a solemn obligation to exercise the God-given rights to the freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Casting one’s ballot is an important part of that process.

Sure, some of America’s critics will always point to groups in the past who were disenfranchised by Founding Fathers. While it would be disingenuous to deny their complaints, it would be even more disingenuous to deny the progress that has been made in steering our great nation toward universal suffrage for all its citizens.

Our country fought a bloody civil war to grant the blessing of freedom upon those who first arrived in this land as slaves. Sadly, the struggle continued, and many of those freedoms weren’t finally secured and guaranteed until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Women, who make up about half of the citizens of our country, also had to struggle to win the right to vote. Although many of the suffragettes also had been abolitionists, they didn’t get the right to vote until the early part of the last century — less than 100 years ago.

And finally, young voters, those who had reached the age of 18 instead of 21, won the right to vote in the early 1970s at the height of the Vietnam War. Some said those old enough to be drafted into the military ought to be old enough to vote for the politicians who would put them in harm’s way.

America’s greatness will not be found in these struggles to provide universal suffrage. Instead, America’s greatness will be found in the way our nation has recognized these deficiencies and then corrected them. Our nation is a work in progress.

Which brings us to today — the day when all of us have an opportunity to cast our vote and have our say.

This paper does not endorse candidates and rarely states its opinion on issues appearing on the ballot. We leave you to make those decisions as your conscience directs.

But we do encourage you to cast your ballot, and let your voice be heard. We should never forget our freedom depends upon our participation.

Please vote today.