For God's Sake-use your vote

The Archbishop of York-Dr John Semtanu-has placed the following advert in the York press. Couldn't put it better myself!

For God’s Sake York, Use Your Vote!

This Thursday is election day. Please use your vote.
By not voting you run the risk of short changing our city.
Democracy costs. I am paying for this advert as a symbol of the cost paid by all those who gave so much so that you might be able to use your vote.

Not voting creates a political vacuum, leaving the way open to unrepresentative politicians and parties to get their way. There are those seeking your vote whose actions betray the lives of those who fought for freedom.

Jesus warned us to be wary of wolves who come in sheep’s clothing.
They come with honeycombed words, promising a New England, and a land of milk and honey. In reality they offer us a diet of bile and discord, a desert of hopelessness and policies which stoke the ashes of Clifford’s Tower.

If Apathy becomes the real winner on Thursday night, then those who seek to divide us will be elected, hiding under Apathy’s skirt. My hope is that as you cast your vote on Thursday you do so with your eyes wide open so that our city does not sleepwalk into a wall of hate.

As the Philosopher Edmund Burke once wrote: “For Evil to triumph, it is necessary only that good people do nothing.”
Do something this Thursday. Use your vote. Be the change in the world you want to see.