Voting, Voice and Victory

For the last few months leading to the general presidential election the ZeroDivide website has featured non-profit organizations dedicated to increasing civic engagement, and who are using technology and new media tools to do so.  Immigrant communities targeted by HOPE, Radio Bilingue, NALEO and Filipinos for Affirmative Action, and young voters targeted by Generation Vote, HipHop Congress, Rap Sessions, Youth Radio and Youth Outlook are informing new voters and giving voice to disenfranchised citizens.  ZeroDivide as an organization cares deeply about supporting actions by our grantee partners that promote equity and justice. And as a group of individuals we are each passionate about empowering people who are disadvantaged by social, economic and political conditions that keep many of us from fully participating in and contributing to the greater society around us.

So as I contemplate my vote on Tuesday, I think about for whom my vote counts: for my dad who never missed an election because as a depression era immigrant he was also a proud American citizen; for my mom who having lived her last eight years in a Medicaid nursing home diligently completed her absentee ballots because as long as she was alive she "still mattered"; for both my daughters working full time in order to pay for a public education, who are voting for their very first president; and for my son who before he's old enough to vote, will be paying in taxes for the mistakes those of us who can vote have made to literally mortgage his future. My vote will count for them and for all those who can't vote or have no civic representation.

In my parent's time, voting was the one action that assured their voice in our democracy.  Wiith the new tools of democratic participation that technology provides us, promoted in and targeted to emerging active voters by  organizations that represent them, many new opportunities for civic engagement are possible. This is a victory we can all share in no matter the electoral outcome.