It happens every election year.

“I’m not going to vote because it won’t matter, anyway.”

There seems to be a pandemic of this attitude that breaks out among citizens each year around election time, specifically on the federal level.

Simply put: This is untrue. Your vote does matter.

Do we remember the SOPA Act just a few years back? People were outraged by a bill that would potentially make the free and open Internet not so free and open. Millions of letters poured in to state representatives demanding this bill not be passed.

And guess what? It wasn’t.

We as a democratic body underestimate our power and influence over the way things are and how they ought to be. This could be from propaganda from the government, implying that because we don’t have the power or money to get things done means we won’t. This could be because of mainstream media incessantly showing us images of a world where we seem to see nothing but tragedy and chaos that we become numb and apathetic to thinking we can evoke change.

This too is simply wrong.

Money talks, yes, but voices talk louder. Protests, letters and demonstrations talk louder.

For every plane that crashes, a thousand more land safely (not to diminish the tragedy of those ones that do crash, it is just to say that we don’t pay attention to the ones that take off and land safely, and we should).

For every cop that corrupts his badge and his oath, there is another cop who helps a family in need. There are countless of examples of the good and the change that occur every day.

Another fact of the matter is that when election time does roll around, and you don’t vote, I don’t want to hear you complain. You only get to whine about the government if you attempted to fix it by casting your ballot. And while talk speaks louder than money, so does action. It is high time that we take our narrative back—the narrative that we all wish this country to represent.

We cannot do that if we sit idly by, defeated by our own insecurities, doubts and skepticism. People really can change the world they live in.

Rock the boat by rocking the vote. Don’t be another miser. If you want to see change, be the change you wish to see.