Old Weird Ward
Unless otherwise noted, that which is posted here is opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If you don't like my opinions, go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to actually read this drivel.
The presumption exists that you can read at all.
That may be a large assumption.
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Monday, November 01, 2004
- - - - - On Voting, Again - - - - -
I note that I do tend to go on and on about voting, a bit.
There's a reason for that.
I'm going to fire up the 'Way-Back Machine again, all the way back to 1969.
I was nineteen. My draft status was 1-A (Cannonfodder, Prime, 1 each). And....it was the first year of the Draft Lottery. My draft number was 5.
The previous year, 1968, was a Presidential Election Year. Landslide Lyndon had managed to lie us into Viet Nam. He wasn't running - he'd bailed after he figured he'd screwed up. Hubert Horatio Humphrey was running against Richard Milhous Nixon. Humphrey couldn't shake the image of the past - in which Democrats were the Party Of War (WW1, WW2, Korea).
OWW Didn't Get To Vote in 1968! I was eighteen, but I didn't get to vote, because in California, at that time, the legal age to vote was twenty-one.
I have voted in every election since then, starting in 1972.
The right to vote is precious. The responsibility of the voter, to vote as wisely as you can, is heavy. So I watch the candidates, and listen. I watch the activivities of the supporters of these candidates, and trust me, I do pay attention. And I think, very carefully, of the America that I want to see.
And tomorrow, I go to my local polling place, and I vote. Just once, despite the temptation to go Chicago style (Early, and Often).
Oh, what did I do about my draft status? I joined the Navy to avoid being cannon fodder. It was nip and tuck and couple of times, but I came through my service without so much as a scratch.
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