Miss Em exercised her right to vote for the first time, today. Since she was a little girl, we’ve stressed that voting was a hard-won right for American women and that it was not just her right, but her obligation to vote.
Today, she lived up to all that, and I could not be more proud.
Here is to four more years. May we all come together and work as one.
I love this post, Rainy! (And your daughter is beautiful. She must be feeling so proud today; she’s one who participated. So yes, here’s to four more years and that we can all come together. xoxo
Thank you, Tina! 🙂 I loved that she was so proud of this milestone. I loved that she was so excited to vote. She really took her time and studied *all* the ballot initiatives and thought about them, researched them, asked questions. She didn’t just vote a straight party ticket or take the easy “voter guide” way out. I feel confident that she will be an involved, thoughtful voter and citizen in the future and that’s *huge* – we need our young people to care about this process!
What a woman she is! You’ve done a great job raising her, obviously. I’m afraid I tend to vote a straight party ticket just because of the way the parties view the future. But I think your daughter’s got it right. I’m proud of her and proud of my kids because they all voted, and even my grandson voted in his very first election! Very proud mom and nana! You’re sure right about needing young people to care and participate! Congratulations!
Congratulations, Miss Em, for voting! John and I worked very hard to get the vote for 18 year olds, way back when. We had doors slammed in our faces, we were shouted at by strangers, and some friends acted as if we’d lost our minds. But we felt strongly that if an 18-yr-old was old enough to be shot at, he or she was old enough to vote. We were very disappointed to have less than 30% of 18-yr-olds turn out to vote that year!
Wow Bjo, I didn’t know that! That’s really cool. I remember voting in my first election at 18 and what a profound experience it was. You know, you can actually register before your 18th birthday, as long as you will be 18 and eligible by the election. Miss Em registered when she was still 17 because she couldn’t wait.
They said a record number of young and new voters turned out this year, so, I think your work was not in vain! Just took a while…
And you should be so proud of Emily too for making a difference by voting.