Pay the price of liberty: Vote
With every issue of the Cape Gazette, we repeat a sentiment that expresses our purpose as a newspaper: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
For newspapers, as for citizens, vigilance means keeping a close watch on those in power and holding them to the highest standard of serving the people they represent.
Vigilance requires questioning the actions of our politicians and the motives for their actions. It also requires demanding clear answers to questions that address public concerns. It also means voting.
To help readers prepare for Election Day, the Cape Gazette has published question-and-answer interviews with candidates in each of our region's most contested races.
Culminating that effort, we published “Election Guide 2014,” which offers a biography and a statement expressing why each candidate is running, presented in a format to help voters review the races, make choices and take with them to the polls for reference.
Sadly, Sussex County officials estimate only half the citizens eligible to vote will show up to cast ballots. That's a higher turnout than is expected nationwide, where elections that don't feature a presidential candidate attract only about 40 percent of eligible voters.
But even in Sussex, one of every two people who could vote is likely to stay home. Some may say they are too busy; others might have decided they don't like any candidates. Still others have given up altogether, believing their votes don't matter.
It's hard to see how any of these reasons for not voting contribute to establishing a representative government. If only 50 percent of eligible voters vote, the winner could be decided by only 25 percent of voters; in three- and four-way races, even fewer votes will be decisive.
Voter turnout is always key. But voting also expresses the freedom that our democracy represents.
For what is an election if not proof of our vigilance, in this moment in time, over those who govern? It is our chance as citizens to show we are willing to pay the price to protect the liberty our nation defines and cherishes.
