After reading the editorial in the Forsyth County News Sunday, it made me start to wonder what could be causing voter apathy in Forsyth County. My mother-in-law always told me that I pick things to death. Well Thelma, I’m at it again.

As a member of the Planning Commission, I hear each month from many people who obviously want to see changes. People who would take the time out of their busy schedule to put on a red shirt and wait hours to be heard on an issue want change. I’ve watched these people many times walk away from the whole process feeling alienated. Asking, what’s the point? They often feel they don’t have anyone listening to their position. I have been there myself. I felt the county was turning a deaf ear to my concerns. When an issue I was concerned with came before the Board and I couldn’t even get a call back from my elected official, I felt anger. When it was resolved, never in my favor, by those that I helped elect to office or who had assured me they agreed with me, then voted differently, I felt abandoned. I also worked for the county for five years and experienced the same kind of things. Politics I guess.

But, in both situations, the way I saw it was, I would have the final word, at the polls. Unlike my previous jobs in Corporate America, I didn’t have the opportunity to vote my boss out. I kind of liked that. Things didn’t always change because of my vote but as Mahatma Gandhi said “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” So, I got involved and am contributing what I can to change. I feel better doing something. Lying down and taking this type of behavior, particularly from people I am paying, was making me more cynical and angry.

If you are cynical, angry and feel alienated too, the best remedy isn't to stay home on August 8th. Don't stay home. Take your one chance to hit 'em where it hurts. Go to the polls and vote against that elected official that may have lied to you or didn’t return your phone call while muttering, "take that" under your breath. Better yet, if you can't come up with any other reason to vote, go vote for the candidate who was most heavily trashed by negative ads or whose campaign called your house the most times, especially the one that called at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. The point is, go vote. You’ll feel better.