OCR Text |
Show 5 Page Utah Woman's Review RIGHTS' Continued from Page 3) Carefully look at each name and proposition listed. Next take each office separately and make a check beside each person or item you favor. If you feel warm confidence within as you go through the entire , ballot, you will know that you are an exceptional person, with knowledge, understanding and confident friendship for the candidates running for office. Most of us, however, are not so fortunate. We discover that in most cases we do not even know the people we are voting for and will be forced to either leave those blank, or vote along party lines, without any knowledge of the person concerned. It is interesting to note that a warm-hearteperson, who has a friend running for office, will probably vote for him, even though he may be in another party affiliation. The more friendship you feel for the person yotrare voting for, especially if you know him as a friend personally, the more you can look' within you and discover that as you vote for him, a warm surge of energy of hope may be felt instantaneously within you at that moment. Check within yourself and see. You may be pleasantly surprised when you discover this, if you havent noticed this before. Thus to win for yourself a warm flow of joy and confidence as you vote, try to feel a close friendship with the one you sincerely desire- - to win in the election. Keep in mind, also, that the person you vote for who wins will actually be your personal representative to protect your rights of free agency. In a sense he or she becomes your stand-in- . Now if you sincerely desire to feel a close warm friendship for the candidate you favor, but do not know him or her personally read what you can about the person concerned and then ask yourself, Do I feel as friendly towards this person as he or she feels toward me? If you feel a warm answer of yes within you, which helps you to feel more confidence d in one candidate over another, you will have discovered a great and wonderful extra benefit that can come from voting have that you may never known before. Indeed that flow of warm confidence, consciously noticed within you can be felt over and over again whenever you have confidence in what you are doing, thinking or saying, and take notice of that feeling of warmth as it occurs within you. If you need to notice the difference of feeling within you between at least two candidates vying for the same office, in your own mind ask yourself how you would feel voting for the person, opposite to your own views. Then ask yourself how you feel as you vote for the one you do want to win. This contrast should help you begin to discern your own feelings and notice the change from uneasiness to warm confidence within you. Thinking about these things may do more to help you enjoy voting and to enjoy life itself than at first you would ever imagine. Only you can discover it for yourself in this harmony and warm feeling. To summarize let us ask a few questions. What candidate now running for office would not have an edge over another, if he knew about this warm energy power within him and he received a warm vote of confidence from every voter, who also knew about it consciously and noticed this warmth as he went into the voters booth to mark his choices on the ballot? October 31, 1972 ment because they dont understand what it aint. NOBODY VOTES IN MY However, our Star Spangled Ban- TOWN ner waves best when every thread is intact. Similarly, the govern-- , by Pete 87776 Simer ment it represents needs every vote. another presidential election day approaches, probably never before was so much at stake in As America. But nobody votes in my town and most of my 3,700 townsmen apparently are chronic misfits who couldnt care less. My town is Jacktown Southern near Jackson. Michigan Prison, Now, in the morning chow line, a young murderer and a middle-age- d burglar seem ready to tanin an argument on the merits gle of the Republican party. An alert guard breaks it up just in time. The burglar is serving his fifth term in my town. I know him well. So, after he cools off, I needle him a bit, saying, I take it you voted for Hubert Humphrey." "You kiddin? he scowls. Man I never voted in my life. I got sense enough to know no matter who gets elected, the best any little guys gonna get is the worst of it. The hell with votin! That's seditious philosophy, isnt it? The hell with votinI means down with democracy, your country, your government and, consequently, every home (where government really begins) in the land. Yet, I have been guilty of comparable sedition. It came out disguised something like this: Didnt get around to voting; had too many other things to do on election day. The reflection isn't easy to face, now that I have been stripped of my voting rights for many elections to come. I begin to wonder how my neighbors feel about not being allowed to vote. Later, I question nearly 300 of them. Almost 90 merely shrug or otherwise indicate lack of concern. Eighty individuals admit that they had never voted! (Could the deeds that landed us here be germane to such disregard for democracy?) Consider two responses to: Did you vote regularly when you were What voter would not feel increased confidence and peace as he voted for his choice of candidates, knowing that the one he voted for also would consciously know about this good energy of life and feel it simultaneously as he made his decisions as a representative of the people in government? What city, state or nation, administered and served by representatives and people who know about the Presence of Warm Life within and feel it at the same precise time they consciously worked for the good of the people in harmony with the ideas of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, would not increase in peace and prosperity never known before? Who would not feel warm harmony with the idea that each of us needs to practice marking the sample ballot in order that we may become conscious of the heat sensation of friendship and confidence within us as we place an X beside our choices on Election Day, this November 7th? Wouldn't this be the way that each voter could always be a winner at the voting booth even if some of his choices didn't win? But nobody votes in my town. Nobody may. What could be worse, patriotically? Your town, where every adult citizen may vote . . . and you dont. Editors Note: This feature is a product of Southern Michigan Prisons Inmate Writing Program, sponsored by Mr. Jesse Van -Dusen. free? Gambling syndicate underling (age 33, serving years): The saw to it that organization always I voted; even told me who and what to vote for. 5-- 10 Alcoholic (age 47, doing 1- -2 for "Theyd let me off work in time to make it to the polls, all right. But Id stop at a non-suppor- t): buddys house to talk the election over. There'd be a bottle or two around. And somehow, before I considered ail the issues and canW. David Hemingway Republican House of Rep. District No. 6 A third generation westsider, Hemingway is presently a graduate student in business administra- - tion at the Univ. of Utah and a construction worker for Okland Construction Co. He attended Riverside Elementary, West High, Dixie College and is a graduate of BYU in political science. He also served a L.D.S. Mission in Brazil and worked as an intern in the last session of the Legislature. David believes that westside schools must remain open, the Jordan River Parkway should be developed, taxes must not be raised, and local government should solve local problems. Most important, the west-- . side needs enthusiastic didates and decided whod get my vote, it was either too late or I was too loaded to care anymore. As for me i well, occasionally it is unpleasant to face the mirror of patriotism. Instead of voting I have gone hunting and fishing; attended to personal matters of assorted kinds. But the future will offer opportunities to prove my determination never again to skip a chance to vote. And I will vote as intelligently as I can. In the meantime, what about you? Like many other sheer blessings in our freedom, the privilege of voting just cant completely be appreciated until it is lost. I know. So I must agree with the immigrant who said: Most Americans cant adequately appreciate their system of govern full-fashio- ned fsrtrtz c? pi |