How to Win in 2020

Ten months ago, I stood in a circle with my friends as we counted down the final seconds of 2019. "Three, Two, One, Happy New Year!" we shouted, watching the ball drop on our television screen. Little did we know we were in for the most challenging year of our lives.

No one could have imagined that 2020 would end up serving us a decades worth of issues, all while we are expected to elect the next president of the United States. At times I have felt like I'm drowning, stuck under a surface of darkness. Yet, the moment my head breaks the surface of the water, another snippet of unexpected news pushes me back under. News such as:

Australian bush fires, protests in Hong Kong, withdrawals from the EU, Harvey Weinstein's verdict, Kobe Bryant's death, Ebola resurgences, the acquittal of Donald Trump's impeachment, over one million people dead from COVID-19, stock market crashes, Murder Hornets, the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell (an associate of Jeffery Epstein), the Beirut explosions, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women, another Great Depression, flash floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, record-breaking wildfires, plane crashes, war on women's reproductive rights, police brutality and the Black Lives Matters movement.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg; but we all know that. So I guess the questions stands, what CAN we do, or more so, what SHOULD we do?

The answer is as simple as one word. VOTE.

We are incredibly lucky to live in a country that was founded on democratic principles. Principles such as the right to free speech and expression, the right to a fair trial, the right to free and unperturbed media, freedom of religion, and the RIGHT TO VOTE. When we do not vote, we are doing a disservice to both our founding fathers and to the individuals who have spent their entire lives protecting the freedoms that define the very being of what it is to "be and American."

If you are a woman, a person of color, an immigrant, or a minority individual, remember that there were thousands before you that fought for your right to vote. It is not only our right, but our duty as Americans. We are facing crises of unprecedented proportions, and it is time for us, we the people, to take back control. Let us not forget that America was colonized because thousands of Europeans were escaping what they believed to be an unfair government, one of oppression. It is our turn to fight against the oppressive force that we have been subject to for decades, it is time for us to raise our collective voices and rebuild our government from the ground up.

In the end, I will leave you with this quote by Thomas Jefferson, "...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness… it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."