My Vote Goes To...

Dear Prophecy,

I am ready to vote tomorrow. What I do as an individual does not change the course of the history - but it does. There is real danger to Pakistan right now. I felt afraid for a while, but then I made a decision: I will do whatever is in my influence to do the appropriate thing.

My vote will indirectly favor a man who is much maligned and has erred, but I see strength and determination in him.

This is how time is going forward, Prophecy: One is the course of the Universe, and the rest are courses of Man. What prevails is the course of the Universe. The Universe favors the man I am going to also empower with my vote.

There is time required to correct our internal ills as a nation. Simply by starting pockets of resistance we can't escape or shoo away the fate that has arrived to knock down our doors and storm our homes by force. What am I talking about? I mean Pakistanis have been lazy about figuring out their course of action over 60 years. We are blaming, ill-mannered, and irresponsible. Many factors contribute to it: none the smallest is the way we are brought up in our families: over-protected, doctored, and engineered. No wonder the mental capacities of the adults!

Also, we have to let go of our history - and see the present as it is. We are not who we were 5000 years ago, we have to synthesize as a nation. We have to find unity within diversity by accepting the beautifully diverse people we are.

We have to create institutions, methods of work, undertake entrepreneurial activity, make things happen. Before that, we have to have education - and an enabling of minds, of people, of mothers.

Most of this has to come from within each person, their hearts, their thoughts, their actions, their lives. What we have wished after seeing the results of our inaction and lack of perception is to hope that we can shift the blame and make the results go away - elsewhere.

This is not happening. We are going to see the outcome of our flawed actions or of lack of decisions.

An entire generation has to pass away and a new one has to emerge in leadership positions - holding steady to greater human values and principles. The youth have to NOT GIVE UP. EVER. The light is at the end of the tunnel, but we will have to cross the tunnel. There is no way to avoid that.

I am going to vote for the man who is able to see, and who is determined to lead us out, despite our thrashings-about and resistance. His methods may not be desirable, but consider this:

You are stranded in a strange town that's falling apart with plague and destruction. You want to get out and get back home. A guide can tell you the only road out, but it's patchy and difficult, he has no idea of what trouble can befall on the way because the situation is not clear, and the group which wants to get out is busy thinking selfishly and not cooperating with one another. What compels this guide to lead except a leader's last bit of courage - of not abandoning those he's guiding. What pleasant drive are you going to have on the road? Does it even matter?

Pakistan is in a dangerous place. Despite all our photos of food street and the enchanting Northern Areas to "create a positive image", we better not run away from this reality anymore. We have pockets of delusional people amongst us - they are part of us, but some have become too cancerous to be tolerated. We are, overall, a sick and dishonest people who are always referring to higher ideals but no ground realities. WE MUST STOP DREAMING AND START TAKING ACTION, or action will take us as it has.

There are forces in action. A consciousness is rising. People are getting together and thinking and talking and communicating and reflecting. Women are becoming more empowered. Elders are reflecting upon their roles. Youth are getting restless. Some are on the route to their self-destruction - sorry, it's their problem right now.

But we can't hide behind our attempts to change. Unless we put these new ideas into action, live by them OURSELVES rather than inviting others to do-what-I-say, let go of possessive power - we will not get out of the plague. We are a people who counter those who step out of lines and break traffic laws by going a step ahead in breaking and still telling others they ought to have fallen in line because we say so that it's the principle! What nonsense!

We have to become unpossessive, unconditional, contributing members of an emerging family that our whole nation is.

Prophecy, tomorrow I vote for those who are in the present. Who have a vision, and who are delivering. They have a scarred history, and my family has been one of the victims. But we were sitting by the sides hoping someone else to take care of everything while we focused on our route from home to school to home to work to home to shopping center to home to Masjid. This is to end. Tomorrow could be a violent day, but Prophecy, I am a Pakistani. If I sit home, who is going to die? Why should they be out and why not me?

As is my right to live in Pakistan, so is my right to face the tribulations and the death. In all death, Prophecy, there is the true meaning of life.

I feel very strong and empowered and hopeful in the midst of this suicidal madness. I am casting my vote tomorrow for the NOW, Prophecy.

Pray for Pakistan!

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