In the chaos of Covid-19 many may have forgotten that 2021 is an election year.
You and I (the people) get to choose, again, who our leadership will be for the next five years.
But there are those who don’t choose. Instead, they opt out and become fence sitters.
They do not vote because they believe voting does not bring change.
I recently re-watched an interview with comedian Trevor Noah and American radio host and actor Big Boy, which was originally aired in 2017.
Noah speaks about African American women and how they acknowledge their voting power.
He uses an analogy that is applicable to everyone living in a democratic republic.
“People say ‘what’s the point? You’re choosing between nothing and nothing’.”
But think of it like this – think of politics like your drive home.
Your GPS gives you two options, you can go this way or you can go that way.
Are you going to be the person that says: “What’s the point? There’s traffic on both routes.”
One of two things is going to happen.
1. You’re not going to go anywhere.
2. Someone else will chooses the route for you.
Or, in the words of Big Boy, “man, if you don’t vote, someone will vote for you”.
What Big Boy was referring to was not someone casting a vote on your behalf, but someone will cast a vote for who they believe in, even if it means voting for the side you would never even think of voting for.
If you don’t vote, how do you plan on at least changing what currently is, if you don’t believe in altering what is to come?
Fence sitting, as I have come to see, is perpetuated among millennials – those born between 1981 and 1994/6 – or the South African classification, the ‘born frees’, those born between 1994 and 1999.
It’s ironic that people who, like myself, were born in the era of emancipation, generally refuse the privilege of voting.
It is further made ironic by the fact that we are so well aware of our rights, although knowledge of responsibilities still leaves much to be desired, yet the one right that led to the death of many in the struggle for emancipation remains overlooked by the products of the struggle.
Is this not biggest display of ungratefulness in popular culture?
We are the generation of the ‘Fees Must Fall’ movement, agents who stood by and sought to bring about change in institutions of higher learning.
This fire that we choose to keep dormant with in us will soon burn to nothing if we do not ignite the spark of change.
Through our fires we can ignite infernos that burn down the structures of corruption, melt the crippling bars of unemployment and scorch the face of crime down to its roots.
HAVE YOUR SAY
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