Time to vote and I don’t want to

I live in Canada and I have 2.5 hours left to vote. I really don’t want to go out in the rain (tho I will for yoga…)

Last election, I was so mad when I went to vote with a friend and he told me he spoiled his ballot.

Doubly gave him shit when he said he always has.

Now, I’m beyond disillusioned (that means not in despair, but rather see the other side)…

It’s not just that my vote will be a drop in the bucket,

it’s that all of our votes represent a drop in the bucket in the decision-making that will happen between now and the next time we get to scrawl a little x within a circle next to a name or a party….

(every time i do it, it reminds me of grade nine, voting for President of junior high…a sense of diminutive importance mixed with juvenile seriousness)

Voting is just playing the role of pawns in the democratic game we’ve constructed to control each other, systemize…a way to make us feel part of it all and responsible. People say if I don’t vote then I don’t have a right to complain, which is ridiculous.

Choosing representatives to make decisions affecting my life–

it’s becoming old school. Indeed in some countries, and way back when in this country, a vote would be highly valuable. A sign of progress. Hope.

Here, now, it’s time for more participation. Real input into the bureaucratic system. Not just open government, but participatory government. Time for citizens to be on par with policymakers in the bureaucracies and the representative puppeteers.

I want more responsibility than just a vote every few years.

Give it a few decades. There will be communities where this system will be as archaic as it already is.

I can’t wait.