One message before I leave for a very long day of insanity:
VOTE
Vote for McCain, Obama, Barr, Nader . . . write in your vote for Dr. Evil or Darth Vader. Vote for yourself. But vote. Many people in this country have forgotten how lucky we are to have this right. Vote even if it won't make a difference. Vote because you CAN, because you are free to do so, to express your opinion on how this great country is to be run. Vote.
When I was in India, I went out with some friends to a village in the Thar desert. These people were poor in a way that almost no one born in this country will ever see, let alone experience. They lived in mud huts, around a village well. Their most valuble possessions were goats. They owned, collectively, an ancient B&W TV that worked, sometimes, when hooked up to an even older diesel generation. It was their pride and joy, their sign that they were not as poor as they COULD be.
There happened to be an election coming up. People in India have only had the right to vote for 50 years. People like these, though they have had the legal right that long, have had the practical right to vote how they chose for much less time.
Somehow the topic of the election came up. We knew very little about it, but they were happy to inform us about it and the canidates. Their eyes lit up. These people, agnoizingly poor, illiterate, low-caste, knew that THEY could vote. That THEY could make a difference. That THEY had power, even if in their everyday lives they had none. They knew what their votes meant . . . they meant that they had a say. I can't express how much this moved me:" their pride, their confidence, their hiope that came from the simple act of casting a ballot.
We have had the right to vote here for well over 200 years. We are prosperous (comparatively, even our poor are prosperous). We have forgotten just how imporant it is. Don't forget. Don't take your freedom for granted. VOTE.
VOTE
Vote for McCain, Obama, Barr, Nader . . . write in your vote for Dr. Evil or Darth Vader. Vote for yourself. But vote. Many people in this country have forgotten how lucky we are to have this right. Vote even if it won't make a difference. Vote because you CAN, because you are free to do so, to express your opinion on how this great country is to be run. Vote.
When I was in India, I went out with some friends to a village in the Thar desert. These people were poor in a way that almost no one born in this country will ever see, let alone experience. They lived in mud huts, around a village well. Their most valuble possessions were goats. They owned, collectively, an ancient B&W TV that worked, sometimes, when hooked up to an even older diesel generation. It was their pride and joy, their sign that they were not as poor as they COULD be.
There happened to be an election coming up. People in India have only had the right to vote for 50 years. People like these, though they have had the legal right that long, have had the practical right to vote how they chose for much less time.
Somehow the topic of the election came up. We knew very little about it, but they were happy to inform us about it and the canidates. Their eyes lit up. These people, agnoizingly poor, illiterate, low-caste, knew that THEY could vote. That THEY could make a difference. That THEY had power, even if in their everyday lives they had none. They knew what their votes meant . . . they meant that they had a say. I can't express how much this moved me:" their pride, their confidence, their hiope that came from the simple act of casting a ballot.
We have had the right to vote here for well over 200 years. We are prosperous (comparatively, even our poor are prosperous). We have forgotten just how imporant it is. Don't forget. Don't take your freedom for granted. VOTE.
