It's Over

Well, at least my mailbox and front door will no longer be covered/filled with Obama flyers. As I tried to think of something to blog about last night, a friend with whom I was chatting online responded rather enthusiastically, “The election!” I reminded her that I am not now nor have I ever even been a registered voter. She said, “True, but you’re living it.” It’s not that her comment shamed me into writing this. It’s not even that the comments and scoldings of everyone else have shamed me into writing this. It’s that I woke up this morning and simply realized that I am shamed.

See, I’m very pessimistic about politics. The candidates, the issues, the months of campaigning. I avoid all these things as much as possible. Not because I don’t care what happens to this country, but because I know my vote, my one vote, will not make a difference. Period. Case in point: Cuyahoga County is one of the most democrat-heavy in the country, so my vote would not have made one bit of difference. What I finally realized this morning is that this isn’t the point. Surely we hope our votes make a difference, but even if we know they won’t, we vote because there is simply no excuse for not voting.

Besides, I bet there were lots of people like me yesterday who didn’t vote because they knew their votes wouldn’t change the outcome. And when I think about these people…thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands…I’m embarrassed to be one of them. So, this is me, shamed.