We Can Make A Difference Why is it that so little American citizens vote?

Heather Crismond

6 min readMay 15, 2020

We Can Make A Difference

Why is it that so little American citizens vote? We have enjoyed a freedom that our forefathers died for yet we do not exercise this right. We think what will my vote do? It’s just one vote. Just imagine if every American voted this coming November. We are strong every vote counts. We can make a difference together.

While I was writing my last article my boyfriend got arrested. He was sitting in his car outside of his job waiting for his boss to get there. The car he was sitting in was illegal since he had only purchased it the day before.

Any other time in history I could understand cops stopping and questioning an illegal sticker. But, San Antonio had just opened the DMV the day before as part of the reopening of the city.

The cops ran his name and came back with an out of state warrant. They arrested him on a nonviolent misdemeanor warrant and threw him into a jail in the middle of a pandemic.

He was held for over 26 hours with no food and shackles on his legs even though he was in a common area that didn’t require them. He was then put into solitary where he was only allowed out for a half-hour each day.

One hour every day out of their cells is an inmate right not a privilege. He was not even allowed a book to read. Luckily he was only there for four days.

That was enough.

Personally I left Colorado with a warrant or two. The two years I spent there was hell.

I didn’t have to do anything at all. Just being homeless was illegal as it is in most cities in America.

The evident cruelty of illegalizing homelessness isn’t any clearer than in Denver where rising rents have been caused by an influx of young entrepreneurs. The legalization of marijuana made the mile mile-high too much of a temptation for this opportunistic crowd.

Gentrification in all its grotesque glory can be seen on every block. Developers knowing that this new crowd had an income that they could capitalize on were the next to relocate to this once laid-back hippie city.

The double whammy of new construction and enterprising landlords with little to no regulation holding them back pushed out many long-standing residents with skyrocketing rent.

Longtime residents were now homeless in their hometown. To add insult to injury another group had also been making its way into and around Denver.

This group made up of heroin addicts and meth heads came only because of the legalization of pot. They had no jobs and no real interest in them.

They thought maybe the laws would be slightly more relaxed here. Boy were they wrong.

Though Colorado has since decriminalized most possession charges. When I first got there the police force had a long history of dealing with gangs and the subsequent drugs the infused into the community.

What that meant was they were and this is putting it lightly with much sarcasm, overly harsh in their dealings with the homeless.

I had never seen anything like it. They seemed to revel in their cruelty.

I’m ashamed of the times I hurried past the LPD. Thanking God they did not notice me while harassing some poor girl just for the sake of harassing.

I would tell myself what could this one girl do other than get myself arrested.

Right there is the problem. We have a whole society that believes singularly. What can I do? I’m just one person.

We have taken the power away from ourselves. We have allowed this to happen.

We have allowed the police state we now live in. We have allowed Capitalism to ravage this once strong nation.

The age of television and the beginning of the tech age brought us many innovative ideas and useful products. It was also the beginning of the capitalist propaganda campaign.

Enter commercials stage right.

This campaign told you what to like, who to be, what to wear, watch, and eat. This very effectively put us all into neat socioeconomic cages.

The walls on these cages became so thick that we were unable to see beyond them anymore. We no longer were individuals. We were consumers. We were a race, ethnicity, age, and gender.

Those that try to break free are ostracized, ridiculed, and sometimes so much worse.

Too many atrocities committed in the name of maintaining the status quo.

In the past 100 years so many strides had been taken towards our rights as a nation, then nothing.

We have become lazy and disorganized. Do you know why we don’t have universal health care? Because we have not worked for it.

We have forgotten how to demonstrate effectively. We live in an instant gratification age where if we don’t see the results the moment our feet hit the pavement we give up.

The reason African Americans have the right to vote and the reason segregation no longer exists is because they were organized. They also sweat blood and tears for decades.

Though, they make up the majority of poverty-stricken areas, us poor white trash are suffering as well.

Look at the suicide rate of farmers in middle America if you need proof. Blue-collar Americans are starving. It’s ridiculous the number of working families that need to be on food stamps just to feed their children.

Homelessness is on the rise across America because of real estate prices being through the roof.

What we as a society need to realize is this is not about race this is about class. It’s always been about class.

I myself have always been color blind. I’m not perfect but people have always been people to me. The naked racism I have encountered bewilders me.

I understand the history behind race but not the reason we hold on to such hate. Although I think I’m beginning to.

Ask yourself why a nation powerful enough to blind the whole world to the systemic genocide of the Indians can not make our nation forget about slavery. They could have very easily, it’s all in the wording of history.

We are not born racist. That is learned. Past down generation to generation. It’s called distraction.

Why is your property depreciating in value? Why is crime on the rise? Why can’t I find a job? Why can’t I get a scholarship to the college I want?

The answer. Why the blacks and Latinos of course. They don’t want you to see that their other hand is stuffing all your money in their pockets.

This is how the top 1% came to be. When regonomics showed its greedy face in the ’80s there wasn’t much left for them to do.

So they sat back fanned the flames of hate and watched the world burn from the comfort of their balcony like Nero of old.

The rich have gained so much by us fighting each other. It is time for us to stop. We as a nation need to realize this is not a race issue. This is a class issue.

This is about the rich getting richer and making sure the poor stay poor. If we stop fighting each other and put all of our efforts into the destruction of this unsustainable out of control capitalistic government. We will win.

We make up 90% of this country. Give or take, I’ve never been good with statistics.

I’m not asking for a war. This is not a call to arms. We have a voice.

We live in America where our right to free speech is still intact. As is our right to demonstrate. We need to start practicing them effectively.

I know it’s cliché but the phrase “Divided we will fall” is absolutely true. A house divided will never withstand the political winds of this country.

Together, there would be no stopping us.

This virus has been oddly accommodating in its timing. Please do not mistake me. I am an empathetic person who feels on a constant basis the pain the world has been feeling for over four years now.

It has driven me crazy (literally) and made me sick. There has been enough death.

The silver lining in this is; we have not only been put on pause but, have also been given a rare opportunity to see how very broken we have become.

Are we going to allow them to once more put the blindfold over our eyes? Be soothed and made to feel like everything’s normal again by buying a new car or living room set. Do you really need one?

I for one can not. A change has been needed for some time now. The future rests on individuals that can think outside of there cages.

A society that takes only what it needs. A world based on love, kindness, and charity instead of greed. This is not unattainable.

Stand up America. The time has come for us to realize just how very strong we are.

Any other time in history I could understand cops stopping and questioning an illegal sticker. But, San Antonio had just opened the DMV the day before as part of the reopening of the city.

The cops ran his name and came back with an out of state warrant. They arrested him on a nonviolent misdemeanor warrant and threw him into a jail in the middle of a pandemic.

He was held for over 26 hours with no food and shackles on his legs even though he was in a common area that didn’t require them. He was then put into solitary where he was only allowed out for a half-hour each day.

One hour every day out of their cells is an inmate right not a privilege. He was not even allowed a book to read. Luckily he was only there for four days.

That was enough.

Personally I left Colorado with a warrant or two. The two years I spent there was hell.

I didn’t have to do anything at all. Just being homeless was illegal as it is in most cities in America.

The evident cruelty of illegalizing homelessness isn’t any clearer than in Denver where rising rents have been caused by an influx of young entrepreneurs. The legalization of marijuana made the mile mile-high too much of a temptation for this opportunistic crowd.

Gentrification in all its grotesque glory can be seen on every block. Developers knowing that this new crowd had an income that they could capitalize on were the next to relocate to this once laid-back hippie city.

The double whammy of new construction and enterprising landlords with little to no regulation holding them back pushed out many long-standing residents with skyrocketing rent.

Longtime residents were now homeless in their hometown. To add insult to injury another group had also been making its way into and around Denver.

This group made up of heroin addicts and meth heads came only because of the legalization of pot. They had no jobs and no real interest in them.

They thought maybe the laws would be slightly more relaxed here. Boy were they wrong.

Though Colorado has since decriminalized most possession charges. When I first got there the police force had a long history of dealing with gangs and the subsequent drugs the infused into the community.

What that meant was they were and this is putting it lightly with much sarcasm, overly harsh in their dealings with the homeless.

I had never seen anything like it. They seemed to revel in their cruelty.

I’m ashamed of the times I hurried past the LPD. Thanking God they did not notice me while harassing some poor girl just for the sake of harassing.

I would tell myself what could this one girl do other than get myself arrested.

Right there is the problem. We have a whole society that believes singularly. What can I do? I’m just one person.

We have taken the power away from ourselves. We have allowed this to happen.

We have allowed the police state we now live in. We have allowed Capitalism to ravage this once strong nation.

The age of television and the beginning of the tech age brought us many innovative ideas and useful products. It was also the beginning of the capitalist propaganda campaign.

Enter commercials stage right.

This campaign told you what to like, who to be, what to wear, watch, and eat. This very effectively put us all into neat socioeconomic cages.

The walls on these cages became so thick that we were unable to see beyond them anymore. We no longer were individuals. We were consumers. We were a race, ethnicity, age, and gender.

Those that try to break free are ostracized, ridiculed, and sometimes so much worse.

Too many atrocities committed in the name of maintaining the status quo.

In the past 100 years so many strides had been taken towards our rights as a nation, then nothing.

We have become lazy and disorganized. Do you know why we don’t have universal health care? Because we have not worked for it.

We have forgotten how to demonstrate effectively. We live in an instant gratification age where if we don’t see the results the moment our feet hit the pavement we give up.

The reason African Americans have the right to vote and the reason segregation no longer exists is because they were organized. They also sweat blood and tears for decades.

Though, they make up the majority of poverty-stricken areas, us poor white trash are suffering as well.

Look at the suicide rate of farmers in middle America if you need proof. Blue-collar Americans are starving. It’s ridiculous the number of working families that need to be on food stamps just to feed their children.

Homelessness is on the rise across America because of real estate prices being through the roof.

What we as a society need to realize is this is not about race this is about class. It’s always been about class.

I myself have always been color blind. I’m not perfect but people have always been people to me. The naked racism I have encountered bewilders me.

I understand the history behind race but not the reason we hold on to such hate. Although I think I’m beginning to.

Ask yourself why a nation powerful enough to blind the whole world to the systemic genocide of the Indians can not make our nation forget about slavery. They could have very easily, it’s all in the wording of history.

We are not born racist. That is learned. Past down generation to generation. It’s called distraction.

Why is your property depreciating in value? Why is crime on the rise? Why can’t I find a job? Why can’t I get a scholarship to the college I want?

The answer. Why the blacks and Latinos of course. They don’t want you to see that their other hand is stuffing all your money in their pockets.

This is how the top 1% came to be. When regonomics showed its greedy face in the ’80s there wasn’t much left for them to do.

So they sat back fanned the flames of hate and watched the world burn from the comfort of their balcony like Nero of old.

The rich have gained so much by us fighting each other. It is time for us to stop. We as a nation need to realize this is not a race issue. This is a class issue.

This is about the rich getting richer and making sure the poor stay poor. If we stop fighting each other and put all of our efforts into the destruction of this unsustainable out of control capitalistic government. We will win.

We make up 90% of this country. Give or take, I’ve never been good with statistics.

I’m not asking for a war. This is not a call to arms. We have a voice.

We live in America where our right to free speech is still intact. As is our right to demonstrate. We need to start practicing them effectively.

I know it’s cliché but the phrase “Divided we will fall” is absolutely true. A house divided will never withstand the political winds of this country.

Together, there would be no stopping us.

This virus has been oddly accommodating in its timing. Please do not mistake me. I am an empathetic person who feels on a constant basis the pain the world has been feeling for over four years now.

It has driven me crazy (literally) and made me sick. There has been enough death.

The silver lining in this is; we have not only been put on pause but, have also been given a rare opportunity to see how very broken we have become.

Are we going to allow them to once more put the blindfold over our eyes? Be soothed and made to feel like everything’s normal again by buying a new car or living room set. Do you really need one?

I for one can not. A change has been needed for some time now. The future rests on individuals that can think outside of there cages.

A society that takes only what it needs. A world based on love, kindness, and charity instead of greed. This is not unattainable.

Stand up America. The time has come for us to realize just how very strong we are.

Written by Heather Crismond