Your ancestors toiled so you could vote. Go do it.

Many of us have ancestors who toiled and suffered to give us a precious gift. The vote.

Schools that emphasize civics education (fewer all the time) remind us that exercising one’s political franchise is a right. But it’s far more than that. It is a moral obligation based on the principle of “pay it forward.”

Who are we paying?

If you are a woman, there was a time when your gender precluded you from voting. Disenfranchised until 1920, females lived as non-citizens. Persons without an acknowledged voice and without a vote.

But your great-grandmothers stood up to the endemic patriarchy and misogyny of their time, endured male hatred and vitriol, all driven by fear, and muscled their way into the political arena. The struggle they began continues to this day.

They were on the barricades. They brandished their own version of torches and pitchforks. What they now ask of you is so much simpler and safe. Vote.

If you are African American, your forebears suffered mightily, yet persevered. Bought, sold and brutalized, they saw their families ripped asunder for profit.

For their freedom and yours, they fought and died in the Civil War, only to suffer Jim Crow laws, ugly echoes of which persist to this day. Nonetheless, because of them, you have a vote. You owe it to them to use it.

If you come from immigrants, as all but Native American’s do, your ancestors likely fled political or religious oppression to build a new life, one in which they could have a say in their future and that of their offspring. How? The vote.

Each new wave of immigrants — Irish, Finns, Germans, Italians, Poles, Chinese, Hispanics, and the rest — had social and economic gantlets to run. But these people found a way to survive and, eventually, thrive. Their blood and sweat speak to you, and they say, “Vote.”

If you come from blue collar, as I do, your predecessors had to battle business monopolies, hired thugs and corrupt politicians to secure the rights many of us now enjoy in the workplace — the 40-hour workweek, paid overtime, vacation, sick leave, and child labor laws. More than a few pioneers in the labor movement died for their cause; your cause.

All they ask of you is to vote.

If you’re Native American, your elders endured outright cultural genocide.

In their own ways, all these patriots battled on the political front lines against voter exclusion and suppression.

They fought and died trying to protect their own kind and to remain stewards of the sacred land that was stolen from them. Their spirits call to you. Vote.

The list goes on. Veterans who made great sacrifices to safeguard our freedoms, many paying with their lives. Elected leaders who prioritized country over party or self-interest, to their political detriment. In their own ways, all these patriots battled on the political front lines against voter exclusion and suppression, striving to ensure the open and free elections that are the bedrock of any democracy.

We can’t pay them back. We can only pay them forward.

And forward, my friends, means walking into your polling place and casting your ballot — by you, for them, and for those generations who will follow. Do it.

Philip Chard is a psychotherapist, author and trainer. Email Chard at outofmymind@philipchard.com or visit philipchard.com.