If you don’t vote,then don’t complain

Every resident of Kaua’i has a responsibility to vote in every election held

here. Voting is an unbelievably easy way to participate in the democratic

process here; it is the very minimum anyone should do.

For those who are

disillusioned here with the processes of our government, I want to remind

everyone here that each election has only a small percentage of people who are

registered voting, and only a small percentage of those eligible to register

even register. This is, unfortunately, true all over America. Most of our last

presidents have been elected by less than a quarter of the population eligible

to vote.

We on Kaua’i have a small enough population that each vote counts

for very much, and if all of us who can vote would do so, we could affect an

enormous amount of change with the tiny effort it takes to go to the polls or

get an absentee ballot.

We are also small enough that any effort we take to

go beyond and do work in our communities, attend meetings, testify at planning

sessions, can have a huge effect if enough of us do it.

Anyone who

professes to love this island and care about what our future is has no right to

complain about our stultified political processes here if they won’t even vote

or make themselves heard. We can all break through the entrenched networks of

political alliances if we stop being complacent and participate.

MARIA

WALKER

Kapa’a