Tomorrow I will Vote for the first time in my life and I am 60

Oh don’t worry I can hear many of you gasping in dismay that I have taken such a freedom and then stepped all over it. I, like many I would have to say have similar reasons for not voting over the years. My first reality check was upon leaving the Army after 8 ½ years and finding myself homeless. I found abruptly that I could not even sign on to a waiting list for a council property due to the fact that I had not been a resident in a single place for at least three years. This was in 1979 and might I add this had nothing to do with the EU, we were not in the EU at the time and it had not even been thought of in its present form. I became disenfranchised. I had been willing to give of my life for my country and all I asked (like many) was to be treated fairly. 

I had the opportunity to go to America in 1980 and did so with the idea of returning home to go to college to further my career. I stayed for 25 years, it was a very long summer.

Over the years I have watched as politicians have become more and more ridiculous until many of the voting public have thrown their hands up and said ‘I can’t be bothered’ just as I did back in 1979. Not voting is not something I am proud of, you were right to gasp in dismay, it was a waste of an important opportunity and I squandered it. However I want to vote for the best candidate not the one who has the best slurs against the other candidates.

Tomorrow however is different; I am not voting for a person and my vote will have an impact rather than settling for the best of the worst. The politicians have muddied the waters as usual and really we are left with only one choice, to use our own common sense instead of being given strong well rounded arguments from both sides. Some politician have blatantly lied once again, disenfranchising the voting public and putting them at odds with each other instead of rallying them to do what is best for the country.

Many years ago I heard an argument in a management course I was attending, the course leader used the argument of marriage as a platform in which to compare life’s options to. The single guy who like to still go out with his friends says “I cannot commit to marriage I will give up my freedom, I won’t be able to go out on a Friday night with my friends for a drink or go away for the weekend every now and then or buy that motor bike or”

“Why not?” says his Fiancé

“Because I will be married.” Exclaims the single guy.

“But I never set down any rules that we didn’t both agree on, why do you feel that you cannot do all of these things?”

“Because…We will be married.” The single guy repeats weakly and the argument becomes less and less valid as it appears that the single guy has listened to too many of his friends who got married, their wives also having a look of confusion about the assumptions being made.

Could it be that in any marriage there is some give and take? True, you may lose some things altogether but there are some things that when combined are stronger and more productive for it. If we decide to stay in the EU, can we still go out for a drink on a Friday night with our friends? In fact, we may make some new friends because of the strength of our combined lives. As a country can we still make our own laws, govern our own country, retain our Royal Family, and toast the queen (Should we want to)

The thing about marriage is after we have tried in earnest to make it work and if it still does not, we are free to divorce and go our separate ways, there is no law stating that we must remain in a marriage we are truly unhappy in. However the idea of a marriage is to go into it with a genuine desire to make it work, to get a long with our partners friends and family and to give our all.

I am voting to remain tomorrow not because I think that it’s the best idea, I don’t really know what the best idea is due to the disenfranchisement of voter and politician. I am voting to remain out of common sense and a desire to make it work. Because I have a vested interest in the country that I was born in and would have died for as a young man. I believe that this marriage will make us stronger if we let it and that this great country of ours is worth fighting for along with my friends and family, warts and all.

We would rather be right than successful.

For what it’s worth I have a theory. The theory is that we have for so long failed to be successful that we have substituted it with being right. We have wanted to badly to be successful and failed that we strain to be right using all of the things that we can control. This, for one brief moment gives up back our power or at least the feeling that we have some power.

In Great Britain we blame the EU and the influx of immigrants, in America we believe that any move to put any controls on guns is a threat to our rights and we blame the Politicians and say that are trying to control us and take away our Second Amendment rights. In Great Britain Scotland wants to secede from England and have self rule and many people at the moment in Great Britain want to secede from the EU and gain back control. We have just come out of one of the worst and most damaging recessions known to the World. Many people have lost jobs, homes, families and businesses leaving them worried and angry for the future. I believe that anger turns outward and manifests its self in the form of people wanting to be right and gain back control. Sadly, this all too many times shows up in violence and anger and if left unchecked, mental illness. We have seen the worst in people come out in the last few weeks in Orlando and in Great Britain, with 49 people dead and many more wounded and scared in Orlando and in Great Britain the tragic loss of a young mother who was a politician trying to fight for the rights of others less fortunate.

I believe that what we want in life is to be successful, to have worth and to feel as though we did something important with our lives.

Government cuts are not the answer, War is not the answer and Global competition where only a few win and the majority fail is the certain direction to anger and being right again. This will most certainly bring us back full circle. I don’t know about you but there is not one single person on my list that I want to kill, I do not wake up in the morning and wonder which people of what country are out to get me. I imagine that the majority of people the world over are the same as me really; they rise in the morning and go about their business, some kiss their children and their partner’s others head out hoping today will be the day when that special person walks into their life. But far too many return at the end of the day having given a lot more than has been gained. At the moment in Great Britain there is a strike going on against two of the rail companies because they are seen to be taking away their jobs by cutting back on staff and automating the train routes. This is someones life that is being taken away, someones pride and identity. Is it that important if we save a few pounds? What really is the cost in human toll.

I do not have an answer as to what is right, but if you stop for one moment and achieve a small success today; open a door, give someone else your seat, count to ten and give the benefit of the doubt. This is where we start. At least it is where I choose to start. Stop being right at any cost and choose to be successful. It will cost us so much less and the return will be so much more.