Yes, I voted....

It is finally the end of a rather long morning. Did the dog walk, grocery run and, yes, I voted.

The bad news is that they had some trouble with the electronic voting machines and several of us had to stand around waiting. The unspoken thought was "I don't trust the knockin' things anyway!" There was very little talk of the issues and the usual interaction that takes place in a situation like that. On previous occasions, I've always noticed chatter between people. Today? Nothing.

The good news is that we all managed to cast our votes and get out of there without any further malfunction of the equipment. (And I definitely voted 'yes' on 1C :)

Now.. here's why I made the decision to go ahead. For me, it's all a question of right action ~ and the ethical issue of whether I have the right to participate in this system, given that I have chosen another.

In the black/white view, the answer would have obviously been a rather resounding "no". The logic would be that since I've chosen another way of life that is not even compatible with this one in many ways, then I have no right to have a voice in what happens here. It's kind of along the lines of my not having a voice in the life choices of my ex-husband. We no longer have a relationship. Even if the divorce isn't final, we still don't have a voice in the lives our former spouses. However, that would assume a hostile "break-up" though ~ and my choice of another "mate" was not hostile.

As usual, my process of discernment digs a few layers below that though, looking for the blurrier questions. Here are the primary two that came to mind and ultimately influenced my decision:

1) I believe that we all have an obligation to try to make our environment better, no matter where we are. Using the analogy of a toxic workplace, we still get to choose how we behave in the environment. We can choose to counter the bad energy by showing a little compassion and spreading around some kindness or we can continue making choices based on expediency, defensiveness or ego which will only lead to feeding the toxicity.

So I used my voice to defend principles I know to be universally right; to defend the less powerful, the homeless, the elderly, minorities and so on. And, yes, in a few cases I had to support something that would create the least damage ~ the lesser of two evils.

2) What happens in this country does affect the rest of the world. The people who are in power here are the policymakers who determine the nature of change that is exported to other countries. They also make foreign policy decisions that impact the well-being of people in those countries, particularly in terms of economic exploitation. So, a wicked administration in this country can, as we've seen over the past six years, do a lot of damage in the rest of the world, including my beloved Thailand. Wicked state administrations ultimately feed into wicked national administrations.

I want to thank all of you for your comments! They gave me a lot to think about. :)

On another topic, I was blogsurfing last night and came across a truly funny and well-timed YouTube video on Non-Malarial Paul's site. Drop by and watch it. It's really a hoot!

So, ethical dilemma aside for the time being, I'm ready to go put on some shorts and an old t-shirt (yes, it's warm enough in NoCal today), find my gardening gloves and spend some time in the yard.

Peace,

Thailand Gal
~*~*~