Life Until Done

I arrived in the US in July 1998 and I just got my green card in March 2012. For those keeping track, that’s 14 years. Most Americans think that green card holders are allowed to vote. Wrong. Only American citizens get that right.

I do however like many other Americans pay taxes. I am subject to the laws of this land and to the ramifications of the decisions made by those elected into office. I just don’t get a say when it comes to picking who gets elected into those offices.

In five years I will be eligible to apply for citizenship. If all goes well, I’ll probably be able to vote in 2018 but 2020 will be the first Presidential elections in which I’ll be able to cast my ballot. By then, I will be 42 years old and have been living in the US for 22 years.

So to those who complain their vote doesn’t count because of how the electoral colleges are organized or that the outcome is a foregone conclusion, please vote.
To those who complain that they are too busy and that they will have to wait for hours to vote, have to travel so far, that its just inconvenient to vote, please vote.

Vote because in doing so, you are exercising your constitutional right. A right that only you are given because you are a citizen of this country. It is your right to make your voice heard, a right that many thousands of other individuals who live here yearn for.

Imagine not having that voice.

Don’t take it for granted. Please vote.