2024: A Year of Decision

In addition to being a Leap Year, it’s an Election year. 2024 promises to be an interesting year and one I believe will be pivotal in our nation’s history.

It’s Monday morning and I am reporting for Jury Duty for the first time since officially becoming an American in August 2022.

You probably think it’s crazy that I’m looking forward to jury duty but I’m like a kid in a candy store opening his first box of Pop Rocks.

You see, while I believe our right to protest is valuable (other places in the world throw you in the gulag for speaking your mind) the right to participate in the process of governing is far more important and often missed altogether. The responsibility to serve on a jury —the right a responsibility to vote —these matter as much as our right to free speech and right to worship.

[What is a leap year and why do we have them—alongside other crazy things like daylight savings time— we have been doing so long that we forgot why we do them?]

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post—2024 is an election year—a year of making decisions. We get to choose who leads us and what kind of nation America will be in a volatile and tumultuous world.

For over two centuries, America has served as a beacon for freedom and the land of opportunity. It is what drove my parents to choose to come here. America was then—and is now—the land of promise.

We often hear a lot of ruckus about exercising our rights while rarely hearing a peep about fulfilling our responsibilities as citizens.

On their excellent website, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) lists out a snapshot of our rights and responsibilities:

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Rights

• Freedom to express yourself.
• Freedom to worship as you wish.
• Right to a prompt, fair trial by jury.
• Right to vote in elections for public officials.
• Right to apply for federal employment requiring U.S. citizenship.
• Right to run for elected office.
• Freedom to pursue “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Responsibilities

• Support and defend the Constitution.
• Stay informed of the issues affecting your community.
• Participate in the democratic process.
• Respect and obey federal, state, and local laws.
• Respect the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others.
• Participate in your local community.
• Pay income and other taxes honestly, and on time, to federal, state, and local authorities.l
• Serve on a jury when called upon.
• Defend the country if the need should arise.

*USCIS.gov

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As Americans, we must exercise our rights and perform our responsibilities if our democracy is going to continue to work.

I am thankful for the many teachers throughout my childhood education who taught me the meaning and value of both, like my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Williams, my 7th grade teachers Mrs. Wilborn and Mrs. Page, and my high school instructors like Mrs. Newman and Coach Godwin. They instilled the importance of participating in both the rights and the responsibilities of a free country to all their students.

For our nation to thrive and flourish we must all participate in its processes if we expect to continue taking part in its privileges and experience the fulfillment of its promises.

May the Lord bless you and keep you as He watches over you—

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™