“The success of our government depends on each citizen voting -- on each citizen participating in public life -- on each citizen making his decisions, not on the basis of his own interest, but in the public interest.”
Our Quote of the Week is topical as voting gets underway in the United States for the 2024 presidential election. Sargent Shriver’s words make clear that a successful government relies on a democratic system in which all eligible voters are empowered to cast a ballot.
This week’s quote is from a speech given to young people when Sargent Shriver was quite young himself (39), the 1956 Speech to the YMCA Youth Citizenship Luncheon. At the time, Shriver was not yet a national figure, but he was already dedicating himself to community issues, serving as the chair of board of Chicago Public Schools as well as the Catholic Interracial Council.
Early in the speech, Sargent Shriver asks the provocative question:
“We have all been reading about ‘Dream Homes,’ ‘Dream Schools,’ even ‘Dream Kitchens.’ But where, I ask you, is anyone talking or writing or working on the ‘Dream Government of the Future?’”
From there, Sargent Shriver talks about the importance of service and the potential for good that comes from being involved in politics. He says:
“Politics deals with people, with human beings, whose glory is their independence of mechanistic laws, whose welfare can be achieved only through compromises based on give and take, mutual respect, and personal sacrifice.”
But the first and most fundamental point that Shriver makes to his young audience is that each of us must vote in elections, ensuring that we do so with the public interest in mind.
There are many factors that can prevent eligible voters from casting a ballot. Some, such as feelings of hopelessness, apathy, and a lack of time, are personal, but by and large, the majority of reasons are structural. Across the United States, voter suppression can be seen in many forms, from strict voter ID laws in places where voters have no means of getting photo IDs; to purging of voter rolls; lack of accessibility to polls; and more. Indeed, even personal reasons for not voting are rooted in the notion that politicians cannot be trusted or that one’s vote will not make a difference, which itself comes from the effects of harmful policies and inequalities that people experience in their day to day lives.
If we are to design a “Dream Government of the Future” as Sargent Shriver envisioned it, we must all work towards shaping our systems so that we have a government, in Lincoln’s words, OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people—and creating that government begins with ensuring that all who are eligible to vote, can do so easily and freely.
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