Thoughts on voting by Dharma Neil, a 2019 Winona Smith Scholarship winner.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines Efficacy as "the power to produce an effect". Voting is how a Democracy is run, it is how people are allowed to let their voices be heard in the government, without being a politician. However, in recent years there has been very little efficacy in America, there has been such opposition to voting. What I mean is people are not voting because they don't think there vote matters or they don't believe what they have to say is important. So they decide not to vote. In America, the last time half of the abled voters actually cast a vote was in 1972. (https://prospect.org/article/vanishing-voters) People have lost the desire to use this right to vote because they feel as though they are not being heard. 

I believe that we have worked so hard as a nation to have the right to vote, as Americans we should take advantage of this right we were given. Also being that I am a woman I take voting that much more seriously because I have learned about the struggles the women before me faced in order to give me this right. I believe every single voice needs to be heard, and that it can be the vote that could change the world. Too many times I am not able to use the voice/vote I was given, and many people feel the same way. No matter what you think the outcome will be, take a leap anyway. Show everyone around you that you have a voice and you are not afraid to use it.

• Dharma Neil. Dharma is a 2019 Winona Smith Scholarship winner. She attended Woodstock Union High School and is a member of the National Honors Society.  She serves as a volunteer in the Woodstock Special Education program and at the local elementary school. Dharma is pursuing a degree in Special Education at Simmons University.