As Americans, we take the right to vote for granted. However, we often forget with the privilege of voting comes the responsibility of studying the issues and candidates before we mark the ballot. We have two very diverse candidates for presidency to choose from in this upcoming election, and making our choices more difficult are all the half-truth ads airing on television that are being paid for by super PACs. Just as at the time of the American Civil War, we are at a crossroads in America.
In one scenario, we give up our individual rights and responsibilities and let the government collectively decide what is best for us. The other scenario is for us to stand up for our individual rights and responsibilities. What kind of legacy do we want to leave our children and grandchildren?
We have a choice - do we want to give up the right to think and decide what is best for us, or do we want the government to tell us how to think, live and die? It is up to us, by our votes in November, to elect people into the government to do only for the people what they cannot do themselves. We wonder how we've made it through so many generations in this great country without the government running every bit of our lives!
We have seen from history what happens when we stop thinking for ourselves and let a government tell its citizens how to think and live their lives. Do we want to make the same mistakes that were made in Europe in the first half of the 20th century?
Didn't the pilgrims come here in the first place because they wanted to be free from a government telling them how to think and what to believe? How many people want to come to this America even today because they want the freedom and opportunities that our country is supposed to guarantee?
Let us not sit back and lose all that our ancestors worked, fought, and died for, because we have abdicated our rights. You have time to educate yourselves before you vote responsibly in November. Freedom isn't free, it has a price tag and it's called responsibility.
Respectfully,
Fred and Kay Zirger,
Tiffin
