Been and done it - my three votes on three different colour-coded voting slips posted into the appropriate ballot boxes. From a simple 'yes/no' on the referendum to a roll of wallpaper for the Scottish regional representation, it reflected the diversity of democratic process. Now we have to wait to see how the results pan out.
At least here I am reasonably confident that far right parties won't make an impact. I had a quick look to see who was standing in my old local government ward of Dibley and discovered that the far right guy who got in last time is standing once more - this time as an independent as, it seems, the far right party he was part of wasn't far enough right enough for him.
After the local council election at which that candidate was elected I preached one of my few overtly political sermons as a response. My one non-white, non-UK born, church member thanked me, because he was genuinely afraid of the potential consequences.
This week I've been thinking quite a lot about injustices and how difficult it is to address them, that sometimes it has to be one at a time, that sometimes former victims become perpetrators, that sometimes despite our best efforts we end up as hypocrites. Baptists claim to believe in freedom of conscience, but we don't always think that through terribly carefully. The far right people have the right to hold the views they do, and even to test public perception by standing for election; however, we have a responsibility both, where and when we can, to speak prophetically in response and to get out and vote for other candidates.
Whilst I was typing this, the postman delivered the postcard I'd completed a few weeks back at the closing gathering of the Glasgow Poverty Truth Commission on which I, like others, had been invited to write down one thing we would do as a result of what we'd heard. I wrote this:
I will: continue to work for a just society where all are valued as of equal worth
Even as I wrote it, I knew these words were far easier to write than to enact. Sometimes it seems like one step forward and two back. Sometimes it seems addressing injustice A means living with injustice B. Sometimes it seems there are so many injustices it's impossible to know where to begin.
I am reminded of words in a song sung by Cliff Richard back in the days when he was just about the only Christian singer I knew of:
It's a drop in the bucket, I can hear you say
But the bucket gets wetter, I know we'll fill it some day
And I think there is some truth there - what I, or anyone else, does may be just a 'drop in the bucket' but all the drops slowly and steadily increase the amount of water in the bucket, until one day there is enough to wash or drink or simply enjoy. I guess the challenge is to avoid inadvertently kicking it over.
So, as ever on voting day, my aim is to get you to vote, and to do so bearing in mind the privileges and responsibilities of democracy, the challenges of challenging injustice and the value of every drip and drop.