Election Day 2007

I won't guarantee that this won't be a little bit about the upcoming presidential election.

Now, I get it. I really do. People don't like election time. People harassing other people about
confusing legislations they are trying to push doesn't exactly warm the heart Apparently, we are bottom line people who need pictures to explain complicated contracts. We're also a people who are looking for real leaders who help us believing in the things that are important to us; the things that make us proud to be American.

And yet...

Every year we get a chance to make our voice heard. We get a chance to let the people we've "chosen" know what we will stand for and what we will not. And every year we blow it. I can't tell anymore if its because we're annoyed from choosing the lesser of who-gives-a-crap year after year or if we just don't think voting works any more. Whether we vote yes or no, we get the feeling we're being screwed.

Odds are, we are being screwed.

Sure, my absentee ballot won't amount to much. But I will vote. I will vote every year I am able to make a clear decision. I don't care if it matters or if it doesn't change anything. Voting is my right. Voting is my right just as it is my right to exercise my freedom to write this blog.

Yes, I get tired of it. I get tired of being the champion of a dying freedom granted by a broken system. I am looking forward to the presidential election just as much as the next person. I get tired of being shouted down and I get tired of not being able to effectively chose a leader that can actually lead this country. I hate the small pickings. I hate that everything is run by money and by power and by people who obscenely abuse both.

So why do I care? Why do I, after all my frustrations, still vote?

Because it reminds me that pieces of paper and a group of men in closed rooms don't change the world. We do. You do. I do. We, flesh and blood, not ink upon white or green paper, have the ability to change the world. Our government may not be able to do it the way we hope it would--which tells me that its a good thing that they shouldn't. They already have proven that they can't. We are the ones who teach our kids. We help the poor. We find ways to create cures, invent and innovate better living, promote peace. Granted, government doesn't make it easy, but so many people before us have done it without their help and many people after us will do the same.
I don't care if people vote or not. I'm not asking for your vote, and it is your right to chose not to. But I hope that people don't stop talking about what is important to them or stop looking for ways to make this world better than when we had entered it.

Currently watching : The West Wing - The Complete Sixth Season