Political Quotes

“I wish to highlight two quotes. The first is from a 21- year-old woman who is voting for the first time in this election: She was voting, for the first time, for her children and for women's rights, she said, speaking in a whisper. ``I believe in the right of women to take part just as men do, to get themselves educated and to work.'' A remarkable inspiration from a 21-year-old woman voting for the first time in Afghanistan. The second quotation is from a 60-year-old farmer who was asked by a reporter what it was like to vote under the threats that were either proximate--meaning something happening in almost real time or in the recent past--or just the overall threat posed by the Taliban and other extremists. This farmer said: I left everything behind, my fears and my work, and came to use my vote. I want a change and a good government . . . He goes on from there to describe what he hopes will happen. But just imagine that. He said: I left everything behind, my fears and my work, and came to use my vote. When I read that, I thought about something Thomas Jefferson said in a letter to John Adams when he was an older man. He was describing the fear of old age--not the kind of fear of reprisal if you were voting but the fear of growing old. He talked about how he dealt with the fear of growing old in nautical terms.…”