The presidential election is being held today in the U.S.  Every 4 years voters pour their hearts and souls into one politician.  They spend countless hours telling the world why their candidate is the best. Sometimes it’s a vote just to make sure the other candidate doesn’t get into office. Still it’s a vote. We wave our signs, tweet, and post to “get out and vote” because “every vote matters.”

So, which is it? Does your vote matter or doesn’t it.  Are you hoping your vote today will somehow relieve you of your civic responsibility to vote every day?

Many people who are convinced that their vote every 4 years matters then go on to vote against their own values every day. They stand for environmental protection, kindness to animals, and human rights then go on to purchase chemical-laden foods, animal products, and items made using slave labor. They demand a stop to oil exploration, nuclear power, and “mountain top removal” for coal, yet they flip a switch at home or hop into their gas-powered cars or jet around the world as if their vote doesn’t doesn’t really matter.

Every Dollar Is A Vote!

Each of our choices in the past built the world we live in today. And each of our choices from this moment forward will build the world of tomorrow.

Our individual choices are VOTES!  You are voting for and actively building the future… with each and every choice, and especially with each and every purchase. In the U.S. where the government and politicians are owned by corporations, your vote was cast long ago. There’s a reason why a corporate-owned warmonger will win the election — we put the candidates in place.  We are then purposefully distracted by the idea that we now have a “choice” between candidates. Your choice was made long ago.

Your consumer choices act as the conscience of business. Businesses have grown so disconnected that they often only respond to money, not to moral principles. They no longer hear our pleas for kindness and ethics. If profits increase even though a company is spewing toxic fumes, enslaving people, or hurting animals, the company “believes” it is doing something right.

It’s not that these businesses are bad; they don’t know right from wrong — they are simply growing in the direction of YOUR votes. If your values and words which plead for humanity are drowned out by the clamor of your coins, you‘re saying to unthinking businesses, “Yes, keep doing what you’re doing… and do it in my name!”

In a corporatocracy (an economic and political system controlled by corporations or corporate interests), we must realize that government “representatives” represent the interests of their puppeteers *not* of the people. BUT, the people (each of us!) are the ones putting the puppeteers into place. We have control over our individual choices; our choices determine how the world runs, what forests get cut down, who lives and who dies. You have that kind of power. It’s an enormous responsibility, we know. But you’re already making those choices, you just might not be thinking that your vote matters.

Every dollar you spend or choose not to spend is a vote. You voted yesterday. You’ll vote today — maybe hundreds of times. Will you vote for a world that respects human rights, protects the environment, and has compassion for animals? Or will you make choices that build a world you really don’t believe in?

You help build a world reflective of our shared values of justice, kindness, and compassion only when your everyday choices are aligned with those values.

Live your values, change the world.

It’s that simple.

All one,
🙂 m

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