I haven’t posted anything about the upcoming election here. It isn’t because I don’t care about the important issues facing us today (indeed, I can effectively argue either side on most issues), it’s basically because one of the fundamental rights in our system of government is the right to vote in secret, without needing to publically proclaim for whom one votes. More people should take this to heart…if nothing else, it would shut up the pollsters who prattle on about what “is” going to happen.

But I find I have to say one thing about tomorrow’s election - it is absolutely vital, no matter what your philosophy or opinions, that you get yourself out of your easy chair, go down to the polls, and vote. All the hype, hyperbole, and outright lies in campaign ads aside (I live in Pennsylvania, one of the “battleground states,” and so have been assaulted by a constant stream of nonsense from both sides of the “debate”), in the end the future of the country, at least for the next little while, is up to you, not them.

And before you decide that your vote doesn’t count, let’s all sit back and ponder for just a moment the outcome four years ago. Whether you agree with the end result or not, you have to admit the difference came down to practically a handfull of ballots…any of which could have been yours had things been just the slightest bit different.

In this country we keep harping on the right to vote, and routinely ignore the responsibility to vote. I used to have a message on my answering machine taken from the first Midnight Special, where the late John Denver adminishes that if you don’t vote, you don’t have the right, “to bitch, or complain.”

I’m a little sad that this year, for the first time since she was a baby, I’m not going to be able to take my daughter to our polling place (we’re going to have to vote over lunch, while she’s in school). I decided back in 1998 that telling her she needs to take responsibility for her own future as she grows wasn’t enough…I needed to show her how seriously we take the precious ability to determine our own leaders. Each election (Federal or local, primary or general), I either carried her or held her hand as she accompanied me into the machine (we use a mechanical lever system here…look, Ma, no chads) and watched me as I closed the curtain and performed the most sacred and inviolable right we have.

It takes so little time…and it is a right envied by so many millions of humans living under totalitarian governments that it frustrates me when over 50% of those eligible in this country ignore their responsibility. This year, get up, get out, and go vote.

Yeah, it’s that important.