It’s voting time again, and it is not only our right to go to the polls and cast a ballot, it is our most sacred civic responsibility.
It’s distressing to see people in other countries literally risk life and limb to vote when so many registered Americans can’t seem to be bothered to show up at the polls.
We all know the old crack about voting giving us the right to complain after the election, but more than the right to state our minds is involved.
National numbers show that only half of registered voters are likely to cast a presidential ballot, and that will most likely be echoed locally.
While there are admittedly faults in the system, democracy really asks only one thing from us in exchange for our freedom.
It requires that we participate in the process. It requires that we vote.
Our soldiers give up their lives to insure our right to live in freedom, and have since the Revolutionary War.
Declining to vote is the ultimate slap-in-the-face to every man and woman who have ever served in our military, not to mention the poor souls in other, less fortunate countries who have no say, and would readily give their lives to be a part of the process.
It’s easy to get discouraged.
The current president promised change in Washington which has not come. The candidate from the other party does not look all that promising either.
The system has become so doggedly partisan that it seems no sensible decisions can be made.
Still, the only way to change the course of our nation is from the inside, to find and elect candidates who reflect the core values most of us share.
We should go to the polls to show our support for people around the world who have died for the right to vote.
We should vote simply because we have the right to do so, and many people do not.
Most importantly, we should vote because it is the only way to save our own posteriors.