Our Votes, Our Values!
By Sadhu Utprerakam
As the election frenzy is reaching its climax , we expect a lot of voters to have made up their mind about whom they are going to elect.
It is important we take the time now to evaluate our choice.
In order to do so, we need to remind ourselves of our values, the nation’s values and what the citizens of this country, particularly the most vulnerable, deserve from our elected representatives.
At the end of this process, we need to make sure our choice is consistent with those values, and ensure that our judgment is not clouded by the constant negativity of election coverage in the media and the vested agenda of media.
Our choice must reflect our maturity, compassion for fellow citizens and our commitment to our common goals.
Today’s election coverage in the news channels is all about creating anger and divisions among people in this country.
If we let anger affect our decisions, the outcomes will will not be for the betterment of this great nation.
Let us remind ourselves of the following verse from Bhagavad Gita that warns us of dangers of anger.
“Anger leads to clouding of judgment, which results in bewilderment of the memory.
When the memory is bewildered, the intellect gets destroyed; and the destruction of intellect leads to ruin.”
Bhagavad-gita (2.63) America, as a democracy can only exist as long as its citizens act with maturity, and remind themselves that there are some basic ideals that cannot be compromised.
History is replete with many lessons on how great nations and societies have cracked, fissured and eventually fallen due to internal strife that elites provoke.
Why allow that history to repeat itself here and now? Freedom, Prosperity and Security are the pillars of civil society.
We must be vigilant about and thwart the destructive forces that weaken those pillars and compromise our ability to stand up as a nation.
We must remain alert when we see big corporations silently watch powerful communist regimes curtail basic freedoms of its citizens, but complain about lack of freedoms here when our President wants to enforce our laws passed by Congress.
We cannot be swayed by the elites that question the necessity of this country to secure its border, while comfortably living in secure gated communities themselves.
We must not become blindsided when they passionately argue the need to cripple the Police departments of much needed funds while turning a blind eye to the rising crimes that plague the nation’s weakest neighborhoods.
When we see more and more Americans not being able to keep up with the rising cost of living, falling incomes and the increasing insecurity of their jobs, and how low income groups are pushed to homelessness right in our backyard, we must be bold enough to ask basic questions like: whether our country is in position to be inviting more people from outside to come and live here.
I urge my fellow Americans to question agenda laden discourses that are pushed as popular narratives in this country.
At the end of the day, we must care for our fellow citizens and their basic needs first.
We must vote on our values!
