The proudest now is but my peer,
the highest not more high;
To-day, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.
To-day alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people's hall,
The ballot-box my throne!
Who serves to-day upon the list
Beside the served shall stand;
Alike the brown and wrinkled fist,
The gloved and dainty hand!
The rich is level with the poor,
The weak is strong to-day;
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock of gray.
To-day let pomp and vain pretence
My stubborn right abide;
I set a plain man's common sense
Against the pedant's pride.
To-day shall simple manhood try
The strength of gold and land;
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!
While there's a grief to seek redresss,
Or balance to adjust,
Where weighs our living manhood less
Than Mammon's vilest dust,--
While there's a right to need my vote,
A wrong to sweep away,
Up! clouted knee and ragged coat!
A man's a man today!
John Greenleaf Whittier (1852)
Most of us think that Election Day is the first Tuesday in November. It's actually the first Tuesday after the first Monday. That's why we have another week of campaigning to endure.
It wasn't always an "endurance campaign." If you consider not having the option to vote, you may realize that it is a privilege and a right you should enjoy. And with the privilege and right comes the burden...which is what the campaigning may feel like.
Two hundred years ago, I couldn't have voted because I'm female. And originally only property owners could vote--that generally meant white men with land holdings. Times have changed, but heart-felt sentiments often are timeless. Remember the words of John Greenleaf Whittier if you feel like a poor beleaguered voter....
...and VOTE on November 8!
Posted by Kelly
