it's your voice, whatcha gonna do with it?

alright folks ... all both of you subscribers (and anyone else that ventures onto the blog) ... it is that time once again. In a few days, throughout the country, we are calling for a vote on some important issues as well as making the tough decisions for who we want in office. Despite many musings to the contrary, every vote counts. More change is made in this country by the lack of people that vote than by those that actually do.

Those last two lines may seem to contradict, but they are in fact harmonious. There are some very opinionated people in this country. I've heard countless complaints about someone's displease with the results of an election. At least seven times out of ten, when asked if they voted at all, the answer is to the negative. True, my arbitrary statistic is just that, but if half of the people complaining about the results of an election would take the time, their constitutional right (nonrefusable by your employer), and record their opinion into the logbook of history, maybe they wouldn't have as much to complain about.

Watch the news the night of, or the days following. Pick up a newspaper. There is a higher percentage expected for this election (52% of registered voters), but the average is much lower on the whole. As a pollworker and interested party, I have seen results from elections decided on a mere third of the registered voters in this country. Your registration is somewhat of an automatic thing when you renew a driver's license, and dismissed as form to be completed to continue through the process.

You have a stake in this country's direction. I have a say in what happens in our immediate future as a nation. Unless you make the time (morning, lunch, after work) to put the (now preverbial) pen to the paper to voice your opinion, your voice is not heard. To paraphrase a passage of scripture, you are as a clanging symbol. You may make a lot of noise, but the sound passes quickly. Make your opinion a decision. Make it permanant.