In each election cycle, the Texas AFL-CIO joins many diverse organizations in promoting the importance of your vote. For labor, electing good candidates creates potential for good labor policies. As the saying goes, your vote is your voice and in a democracy, voting has status as a right, a responsibility and a privilege.

Less talked about is what you give up when you don't vote.

For starters, when you don't vote, you are giving up a constitutional right that has only strengthened through nearly 225 years of our democratic republic. When right-wing conservatives bleat on about how we must place the original intent of the framers of the Constitution above changing times and modern developments, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

When our Constitution was written and for decades upon decades afterward, women could not vote. Blacks not only couldn't vote and not only were subject to slavery, but each black was considered only three-fifths of a person for census purposes. Hispanics were not on the political map and were simply considered foreigners. Americans could not elect senators directly. Not long ago, poll taxes could be charged to keep poor people from casting ballots. That was the "original intent" of the framers of the Constitution, great as those men were in most ways. Now, several Constitutional amendments later, every American citizen has an equal right to vote.

If you throw that vote away, you throw away a right that has survived bloodshed, bitter tears and a long, hard struggle through positive change.

What else do you toss aside when you don't vote? For starters, you're giving other people the say-so on your government. Chances are your boss is voting. Chances are so is your obnoxious neighbor. Chances are the folks at the Chamber of Commerce are voting. Chances are the rabid anti-union members of the National Right to Work Foundation are voting. Chances are virtually certain that every two-bit politician you can't stand is voting. In short, you're handing over the government to the ones who take just a few minutes--the most convenient few minutes in the early voting or Election Day periods, at that--to cast ballots.

As far as I'm concerned, you're also punting your right to complain about government if you don't vote. Oh, sure, the First Amendment lets you blabber about government all you want, but if I know you're a non-voter, I really don't want to listen.

If you think not voting keeps you out of politics, think again. Not voting is a political act, but it is an act of apathy. Some politicians count on you to stay home, knowing that if everyone studied the issues and turned out, they would be seeking employment elsewhere.

I'm proud to say that union members tend to vote in disproportionate number. But disproportion won't be enough in the 2000 elections. We'll need every last vote we can generate. Otherwise, employers are going to decide the election, and the aftermath won't be pretty. That's a lot to give up for a few minutes of your time.

This article was reprinted from the Texas AFL-CIO Newsletter and was submitted by Leon Fenhaus, Wakonda, South Dakota.