Voting

by Cindy

I have to admit, I'm glad the election is over.  I'm ready to read about something different in the news and something different on Facebook.  I'm so quick dismiss the election all together that I have to be careful to not miss being thankful that we even had an election at all.  Living outside America through a major election cycle has been a wonderful reminder to me of the freedoms Americans have that many others do not.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all, quite frankly.  Some of the thoughts that are swirling around...

In the same week that America holds the 2012 election, China is being told who their leaders will be.  Their process was summed up well in this article by Bao Pu, "There are no laws -- or even any clear rules -- that govern the selection of leaders, leaving the matter of choosing the top leaders of the most populous nation on earth entirely at the mercy of the Party's forever changing internal logic."

A friend from Africa posted this on Facebook, "Coming from a continent where elections are not always peaceful I have so say the USA is amazing because whether your candidate won or lost your democracy works and people can be gracious in defeat and move on and no one has to resort to guns and violence. This is a very precious thing!"

Or my neighbor who is from Tunisia. They are holding their first elections in June 2013.  It will be her first time to ever vote and she's excited.  She's hopeful that the elections will be fair and honest.  She's worried about who will win.  She's aware that at this point, the process is just as important as the victor.  She watched the American elections closely this year because she longs to see something like that in her home country.

I took a very unscientific poll of my approximately 100 students, asking them if they could vote back in their home country.  About 1/4 to 1/3 of them can vote - India, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Canada and America.  Yes, several of my students are American citizens and a few of them did exercise their right to vote.

As I said, I'm still running this all through my head to draw conclusions but I'll add one more point.  The underlying assumption in all of this is that everyone desires democracy, or the right to vote.  One thought that has been reinforced by living in this part of the world, is that not everyone desires democracy.  There are many people, in various countries, that are perfectly okay with the leaders that are in place, perfectly okay with the fact they don't participate in the process, perfectly okay with the idea of not voting and truly believe that their leaders will always look out for their best interests.  As someone who was educated in America, that is something that is hard to grasp.

In some ways, I think I live the best of both worlds.  I'm thankful for the right to vote and I'm thankful that I live in a country where the rulers are generous and benevolent to those living in the country, even if we had no choice in their leadership.