A Vote's a Vote For A' That

With apologies to Robert Burns' Is There For Honest Poverty , and a link to an analysis of the Scottish anthem that champions honesty and character over wealth and finery and ends with the verse below hoping that goodness and sense will lead us to mutual respect.

If you're a U.S. citizen, one way or another you're a participant in an amazing democracy. You consume and you contribute, you benefit and you assist, you vote or you vanish.

Please vote.
                                       
Here's Why
Vaccinate your pets against rabies or yourself against the flu?
Welcome to the public health system.

If you get up in the morning and turn on the lights or the water, you benefit from public utilities and government regulation. (Unless you live "off the grid" and dug your own well.)

Michigan voters have an opportunity to influence the future of our energy sources by casting educated votes on Proposal 3.  Proposal 3 Text here.

If at some point in your day you have a cup of coffee, get dressed or purchase gasoline you're a participant in international trade and the global economy. (Unless of course you harvest coffee beans in your back yard, knit your home-loomed clothing, fashion shoes from hand-tanned hide or rubber and have an independent oil well and refinery next to the java plants and rubber trees.)

Michigan voters have an opportunity to influence international trade by casting educated votes on Proposal 6. Reading the Proposal 6 Text may help.

Following a breakfast which may include FDA and USDA if not American Heart Association approved foods you may then leave home, drive on city streets, deliver children to a public school and maybe show up for a licensed doctor's appointment.

If you're among the U.S. work force, 92.2% of whom ARE EMPLOYED, you may then get to work a bit late, but you probably negotiated time off in some fashion and you do in fact have a job.


Do all these things, or simply breathe,  and you've benefited from public works projects and education efforts, government oversight and medical research. Additionally, via your tax dollars, you have directly contributed to Social Security, national defense, retiree and veteran's programs and medical care for low income seniors, children and those with disabilities. Know any retired disabled veterans with sick kids? Help them get to the polls!

Michigan voters may want to weigh in on the Proposal 1 referendum, or read some Emergency Manager Law Background and the Proposal 1 Text. Similarly, Proposal 2 issues are worth a look, as is the Proposal 2 Text.


Helping an elderly parent or disabled relative? See a discussion of Michigan's Proposal 4 and Proposal 4 Text.  The discussion posts after the article were especially interesting.

Interested in tax issues? Check out a discussion of Michigan's Proposal 5 and Proposal 5 Text.

Don't live in Michigan? You may still vote, (if you registered.) You don't even need photo i.d., is this a great country or what?

There's a troop, (troupe?), planning to run the country with or without your input. Take a lesson from your favorite pet and speak up about what matters; a warm bed, healthy meals, regular health care, education...


                                       "Then let us pray that come it may,
                                       (As come it will for a' that,)
                                       That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
                                       Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
                                       For a' that, an' a' that,
                                       It's comin yet for a' that
                                       That man to man, the world o'er,
                                       Shall brithers be for a' that."

I'm Kerry E. McKinney DVM, and I approved this message!