Today Is Election Day. Go Out & Vote!

Today is Election Day here in the United States.

I hope that you go out and vote, no matter what your political leanings are. 

Many people lose sight of just how hard people throughout history have fought for that right all around the world. That includes here in the United States, of course. But it also is evident in other countries, as well. I remember well Election Day in South Africa back in 1994, and the images of long lines of people waiting hours just to be able to vote. For many of these people - particularly the black majority, they were voting for the first time, having been prevented from being able to vote during the days of apartheid and white minority rule. 

Closer to home, what we now have come to call the "right to vote" was not actually extended to all, or even a majority, of Americans until fairly recently. At first, it was white property owners, and blacks and Native Americans and women were refused for a long time. For almost a century for African Americans, for a century-and-a-half for women, and for the better part of two centuries for Native Americans. And while blacks did win the right to vote officially in the South, there were laws designed to obstruct those rights in states in the Jim Crow South until the mid-1960's. We are not talking about ancient history here.

So it is important. And I feel it is almost literally the least that most of us can do, to try and keep abreast of the most pertinent issues of the day, and to then go out and vote. Make our voices heard. Participate in our democracy.

Until you do, it seems to me that you lack credibility if you then complain about how things are after the fact.

Please take the time to vote.