A TRUE CONFESSION
If you or anyone you know is considering sitting out this election—or voting for a third party--they might want to hear my true confession first, as I hope they don’t spend the rest of their lives regretting not voting, as I did.
In 1980, I didn't vote because Jimmy Carter was not progressive or radical enough for me, and I didn't think it possible that America would elect Reagan. Well, I was wrong--and everything in my immediate world changed, as well as in the larger world.
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Soon after Reagan was inaugurated, I started seeing homeless people in the doorways of the shops in my sweet Berkeley neighborhood. As the economy changed, people had to work harder to make a living, and the dynamic Bay Area artist-activist community that I was part of drastically shrank. Reagan’s trickle-down economics have impacted us to this day, creating the greatest income inequality in this country’s history.
Of course, my one vote did not make all this happen, but I wondered how many other people didn’t vote because the candidates did not fit their ideal, rather than considering what was the best action for society and planet Earth? I have ever since committed myself to democracy and electoral justice.
Here is another true story: in 2000, Al Gore lost Florida by 537 counted votes. Ralph Nader, Green Party presidential nominee, took 97,421 votes, many of which might have gone to Gore and given him an indisputable win. That election forever changed the course of global history and the survival of our living world. We are at a similar critical crossroads right now.
Not voting or voting for a third-party candidate is a vote for Trump: a climate-change denier, who says “Burn, baby, burn!” He’s celebrating the destruction of our planet?!
The far right has been working up to these times for decades, culminating in their totalitarian master plan, Project 2025. I believe we can match their solidarity, ingenuity, and diligence. It is up to all of us. A true democracy calls for all hands on deck —especially now!
We need to take back the House of Representatives and keep the White House and the Senate. We also need to focus on races up and down the ballot in order to make the steps that are needed to achieve freedom, justice and a healthy world. And we need a margin of victory so clear that it cannot be challenged. We are in this together. And EVERY VOTE COUNTS!
It is highly unlikely that I will still be alive in 30 years, yet I care deeply about your life, the lives of your loved ones--and that of all beings on this beautiful earth. And so I am asking you to think about the impact of your vote—and that of any other that you can reach-- in this election. How often do you have such power: to affect the fate of the entire planet?
“You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” Pirkei Avot 2:16
