Go vote!

This Tuesday, November 4, all those of us who are American citizens once again get to exercise one of our most sacred privileges. We are able to vote.

We are so very lucky.

It doesn’t always seem that way, we know. Sometimes the lines are long. Sometimes the candidates are uninspiring. Sometimes the races are all for relatively minor offices. Sometimes the issues are depressing, both sides sound stupid, your candidate stands no chance of winning, the best you can do is hold your nose and vote for the marginally lesser of two unappealing evils.

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But we can vote. America’s founders paid dearly to secure us this right, which sets us apart and above from most people who ever have lived.

We have heard from people who came to this country from other places – from behind the old Iron Curtain, from South or Central American banana republics or oligarchies, from the Arab world before it became Judenfrei. Those people could not even dream of voting.

We can vote. We are so very lucky.

We at this newspaper do not endorse candidates – in fact we often don’t agree on them – but we join to urge in unison that everyone who can vote goes and pulls a lever. (Even if by now the levers are metaphoric.) Learn about the issues, think about your beliefs and values, go to your polling place – and vote.

It is our right, our responsibility, and our great blessing.

–JP