The Price of Ignorance & Apathy

Come voting time, you have three choices. Vote for candidate A; vote for candidate B; Vote for No One, opt out of voting and accept whatever comes.

Vote for A because you share values:  poor people are lesser people, undeserving of my tax dollars; teachers are over paid, with far too many benefits; health care for everyone goes against my nature. I have insurance, they should, too. Military spending is too high but I would never second guess our generals. 

Vote for A because it’s my party, right or wrong. If the other guy really wanted my vote, he or she would have joined my party first.

Vote for candidate B because you share values: society by and large is made up of us, all of us. While some of us are better off than others, we owe it to our society to help the needy, care and nurture our children, and support our teachers. Health care is not only good for everyone, it’s less expensive than emergency care.

Vote for B because it’s my party, right or wrong. If the other guy really wanted my vote, he or she would have joined my party first.

I marvel at those who vote against their own best interests, who toe a particular party line in spite of the personal costs. They vote with as much thought as lemmings en route to the cliff. It’s their identity. They vote for military budgets that include aircraft and tanks when even the generals say they don’t need them. They vote for the congressman who voted to authorize $12Billion for a thirteenth aircraft carrier, when China only has one and most nations have none. They vote against rebuilding our national infrastructure when thousands of bridges are on the verge of collapse, schools are crumbling and highways are in disrepair -- some in their own district.

They vote as if they are part of the 1% when, in truth, they’re living far closer to the edge than they know. They imagine how they’d feel if they someday made it into the big leagues themselves, and were somehow going to be taxed accordingly.

The cost of such foolish thinking is found in decreasing support for schools, increasing collapse of infrastructures and social networks. Let’s pay less now to develop our children and more to incarcerate them later. Let’s ignore the failing water, electric and sewer system failures. leaving it to others to deal with later.

Even worse are the people who benefit from services, then fail to vote. Thousands of Chattanooga residents who are now covered by healthcare insurance for the first time will not vote. Nor will families in desperate straits who find relief in supplemental nutrition programs or other subsidies. They leave themselves exposed to the voters eager to eliminate safety nets of any kind.

In Chattanooga and the rest of District 3, voters have a choice -- between a person who has made over $680,000 in four years while doing nothing for his constituents -- or Dr. Mary Headrick, who served her Tennessee patients for some thirty years as a primary care doctor, a woman with brains,breadth and backbone; a woman who stood up for her district, from Chattanooga to Oak Ridge and beyond.

This time, Tennesseans, vote for what’s good for you. Vote Mary Headrick for US Congress.