By Carlotta Grandstaff, Hamilton
Allow me to introduce my grandfather, Joe Foley. As a young man and soldier of the Great War, he was gassed on a European battlefield. He suffered the effects for the rest of his life. “President Wilson sent me to war,” he often told me, “but I never held it against him.”
Here’s my uncle, Roy Murphy, a World War II veteran who returned home from the Pacific with a souvenir Japanese bullet lodged permanently in his stomach.
And I’d like you to meet some other family members: my uncle Richard Foley, U.S. Army, WWII; my brothers-in-law, Larry McIntyre, Army, Vietnam, and Darrel Spinosi, Navy, Vietnam; my father-in-law, Richard McIntyre, Navy, WWII, and of course, my dad, Ken Grandstaff, Army, WWII.
I’m proud to introduce you to my husband, Dennis McIntyre, Air Force, Vietnam, who returned home with a grievous and permanent injury that robbed him of what should have been the most productive years of his life and from which he still suffers today.
What my family members have in common is that they all fought for this country in wartime and all saw combat. All returned home alive, mostly in one piece, but with scars, some hidden, some not.
So it grieves me to see the dishonor with which their countrymen have treated them, for whom they sacrificed their youth and health.
I’m not saying that the outward displays of “patriotism” haven’t been ubiquitous. I’m not talking about those made-in-China yellow ribbon magnets, so thoughtlessly slapped on to cars, or those meaningless “I Support The Troops” bumper stickers.
No, the dishonor I see is a nationwide voter turnout of 36.3% in the last election – the lowest voter turnout since 1942.
It may come as a surprise to many that the U.S. Constitution confers more rights than the one that allows us to have guns. Articles 15, 19 and 26, collectively, gave everyone 18 and over – men, women, freed slaves and their free descendants, all races, all Americans, in fact – the right to vote. My family fought for that right, sacrificed much for that right, but on Election Day 2014 the majority showed my family just how much they valued their sacrifices.
In their post-election analyses, the pundits focused on the wrong issue by trying to explain the voter shift away from the Millionaire Party and towards the Billionaire Party on Nov. 4. There wasn’t nearly as much discussion about the shamefully low voter turnout, but when the national talk turned in that direction, the pundits blamed voter anger and frustration. I disagree. If the voters were as angry and frustrated as the pundits believe, the voters would have been motivated to not only turn out for the vote, they would have actively campaigned for the candidates of their choice, and even run for office themselves.
The real reason people don’t vote, I believe, is because they’re too mentally lazy to do their job as citizens and learn about the candidates and the ballot issues.
How do we change this? Tweaking the voting laws further won’t encourage citizens to get up off their lazy brains and do their civic duty, because, short of sending out pre-marked ballots to each and every voter in the country, voting could not be easier.
Here’s my two-part modest proposal to encourage a little more critical thinking on election day: First, every young person who visits a military recruiting station should be given a disclaimer before signing their names to enlistment papers that would say something like this: “By joining the (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) the enlistee should be aware that s/he may be called into battle, and may sacrifice life or limb to protect the rights and freedoms of his/her fellow Americans. Further, enlistee should be aware that, other than a parade on Main Street in returning enlistee’s home town, any sacrifices made will not be appreciated by a majority of said fellow Americans.”
And secondly, the November general election should be held on Veterans Day.
We have two years until the next election. Plenty of time to think of things other than politics. But in the weeks and months leading up to the Montana primary election on June 7, 2016 and the general election on Nov. 8, 2016, I hope voters will perform their due diligence, and understand that the sacrifice of time and mental commitment required to be an informed voter pales in comparison to the sacrifices made by the Grandstaff, McIntyre, Foley, Murphy and Spinosi families – and by all families in this country who, at one time or another, sent their sons and daughters off to war to protect, among many things we hold dear, the right to vote.
If the voters stay home in droves in 2016, I imagine my grandfather, if he were still alive, wouldn’t hold it against them. But not all of us are quite that generous.