Steph Bruzon

1. Register to vote, if you haven’t already. You can do this from your bed. Registration is the easiest part of voting. Do it now, and next time you can show up!
2. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Know who and what is on your ballot. It should only take you a moment to do this. Please show up prepared. An uneducated vote is just as bad as no vote. And we have every resource we need at our fingertips, which means that there is no excuse for ignorance when people’s lives are at stake.
3. Now that you’ve fed yourself some knowledge, find your polling place! There are many sites that can tell you this info. Here’s one of them: https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/
4. Get up from your bed, dress that human suit, and GO VOTE.

If you need help with any of these steps, reach out! I am here for you, as are many others. You will feel so good walking out of that polling place knowing that you used your voice.

NOW LET’S TALK…

I don’t want to spout some “liberal” stuff at you because I don’t care for the label “liberal” anyway. I’m a human being who cares about other human beings. That’s it. I want to encourage voting for candidates who care about human rights.

It’s easy to forget that the most important thing we have in this world is not money but each other. Ok, you can provide me financial stability! great! but can you fight for my rights and the rights of others? No? Then you lose my vote. Simple as that.

Earlier this year, we faced abortion bans that have brought us back so far I’m terrified for the future of women. When I found out that Roe v. Wade was overturned, I spent weeks in bed crying, researching, writing, trying to make sense of things. This is an irreversible hurt. I will never stop hurting for myself and for the women in this world. How could this happen?

And I’ll admit, I haven’t done all that I can about it. I vote. I’m voting tomorrow. I speak out about hate. I research all that I can so I can provide facts to those less educated on the subject. I identify my own biases, my own ignorance. But I haven’t done all that I can about it. It’s easy to forget what’s going on in the world when it doesn’t directly affect you. Even though the bans technically do directly affect me, I’m not pregnant right now and unable to get an abortion, so I’m able to ignore it, to live a life where those bans never happened.

When something is happening in real time, when the news articles come out and everyone’s posting about it, it’s fresh in your mind. You feel the anger & intensity of it. But eventually, that intensity fades & we move on. Some people move on for comfort, some because it is too painful to linger there. Same thing happened with the BLM movement. So much hurt in the moment, and yet so much silence after.

I don’t want to move on. I don’t want to remain silent. I want to use every moment I can to help, to remain aware of what’s happening because if it’s happening to another human being–it’s happening to me.

It’s happening to all of us. Or are we that unbothered by the abuse of others? or are we that unconcerned with the wellbeing of the people we share this life with?

 In Florida, on July 1st, a law banning abortions after 15 weeks took effect. It’s happening here, too. This isn’t an Atwood novel, though it might seem like it! (that woman is psychic). This is real life, and it’s happening right in front of us.

And yeah, these things can be discouraging for voters. It might feel pointless to vote when at the end of the day, things like these happen. But this logic is flawed! Apply it to anything else and see. Just because your art might not make you money, are you going to stop making it? No. Just because loving someone might end up breaking your heart, are you going to stop loving? No. One day we’ll all die, so does that mean we should quit living? No.

Voting is a privilege. People fought for our right to vote. It takes a few hours (or less) of your time to register, research, and show up. PLEASE don’t take it for granted.

My parents were born in Cuba, where they spent half of their lives silenced by those in power. Voting was hardly a concept, never mind free speech. Speaking up meant risking their lives.

We’re much luckier than a lot of the population.

So protect others as you would protect yourself. If you’re able to have a voice, use it. If not for yourself, do it for others. Even if you think it’s meaningless to vote, even if you think it makes no difference, even if you’re not a woman, even if you’re not black, latino, gay, VOTE AS IF YOU WERE.

Vote as if your life depended on things changing

because ours does–

and thus yours should, too.