Values Worth Fighting For

This is a post by contributing writer, Stephen Jones, of Las Cruces.

It is easy to get a little cynical on the political trail, even when you’re not a candidate. You see the same faces at scheduled events, and hear the same stump speeches over and over again. We hear the annoying rattle of thirty-second television advertising buys, over-heated paeans to our basest fears, constantly playing in a grating loop in the background. We watch paid political operatives, pretending to be “experts,” trying to out-shout each other to win the spin, on the Cable networks, and other places that pretend to be news outlets, and increasingly we appeal to our fellow citizens who are, all too often, really not interested.

Then, every now and then, some little event happens that reminds us that these things that we say we believe in, our core values, really are worth fighting for, after all. For me one of those moments came this past Tuesday evening, at an event in Las Cruces. At a get-out-the-vote rally for Diane Denish, one lone citizen appeared with his young daughter in hand, and momentarily got the attention of myself, and everyone else who was fortunate enough to meet him.

His name is Luis Flores, and he isn’t one of the usual pack of political activists who usually turn out for these events. In fact Tuesday’s event was the only one he’d ever attended. He just came to see the candidate for himself. Flores is a 24-year-old, unemployed, father of two, who is trying to get an education for both himself and his children. Faced with an uncertain future for himself and those he loves, he registered to vote for the first time last month. “I now know how important this is,” he told Diane Denish on Tuesday.

Luis Flores is one thread in the expansive fabric that is New Mexico. He is one parent among many. One of those invisible people we “I.D,” in political parlance, as voters. All he really wants is the chance at making a decent life for himself and his family. All we can really offer him is a partnership between a frequently distant government and individual citizens that might make that chance possible.

No one elected official, no single political organization, no individual person, can wave a magic wand and make everything turn out all right. What those people in government and politics, and those organizations can do is promise to try, to listen, and to attempt to respond to the core values that got them into this political business in the first place.

In less than two weeks we as voters, and as citizens who are active and care about the process, have the unique opportunity that comes around once every two years or so, to try to make that process work for us and our families. Above all, we can get out and vote, and ask others to do the same. We can vote for our values, first and foremost, and we can elect leadership who will respond to the demands that we make on them to try and respond to those values.

These are hard times. We are all worried about the future. But we should remember that these hard times are the best times to try to effect hope and change. We have a real choice in front of us, a choice between our values against all the money that special interests and fear can buy.

In twelve days the TV advertising will go away. In the end it is only our choice that matters.

When we make that choice over the next twelve days, just remember that sometimes, just when you're feeling a little cynical, a little let down by the national state of affairs; let down by the political leadership, both nationally and at home, some frightened, 24-year-old father of two, trying to earn an education and a future for both himself, and his children, comes out of nowhere to remind us that these things that we value the most really are worth fighting for.

To read more posts by Stephen Jones, visit our archive.