By Scott Toler
Election time is approaching, and I am deciding how to cast my vote. I like to remind myself that voting still matters, and that all of our votes taken together make a difference. I like to give my vote the consideration it is due.
I may be in a minority when I say that I admire people who put themselves forward to serve. They sacrifice their time and privacy for the advancement of the general good. Although this statement summarizes an ideal that fallible leaders do not always reach, it is still worth making.
This year, we will elect people who advance the ideal of public service and those who fall short. This is the acceptable price of the freedom we enjoy to vote for the candidate of our choice. Remembering this point keeps disillusionment with politics from overcoming us.
In Plant City, we find ourselves blessed to have fine elected officials who render commendable service. This serves us well, because we know our local leaders best and they know the needs of our community in a more personal way.
This reminds us to pay attention to candidates who run for wider offices and may be less familiar figures. The importance of deciding how well someone might represent a constituency in the most balanced way becomes paramount. The character of the candidate plays a role in this regard, because special interests sometimes hold sway over someone’s view of the office they want to hold.
Regardless of party affiliation, the ability and desire to represent as many constituents as possible needs to act as part of the motivation for public service. Many people enter public life to advance a particular political agenda, but this need not stand in the way of representation of voters.
We need to determine our definition of the public good, and we need to elect people who take positive actions for the good of the public. The daily give and take of politics makes it easy to lose sight of our general well-being, but we increase the beneficial effects of political life when we do this.
Our elected officials represent people, not just the ideas or vision they want to implement. The American political system remains one of the finest and most reasonable forms of government devised in history. We inherited a tradition of selecting public servants that requires our continued involvement and thoughtfulness. Any signals of apathy we send do a disservice to the free society that benefits us.
Each of us needs to feel our vote matters. Voting becomes the expression of a choice we make about who leads us, and the results of an election determine the direction we go as a community in this country.
As a boy, I stood beside my dad as he recorded his vote on those now infamous punch-card ballots. I learned that voting and the people for whom we vote play a vital part in furthering and preserving the liberties we treasure. This inspiration lives now in every vote we make.
Scott Toler is a licensed mental health counselor and a lifelong resident of Plant City. He can be reached at etoler25@tampabay.rr.com.