To Vote Or Not To Vote

Its funny to me that some of the smart people I know don't take the opportunity to vote in every election. Not to sound like my grandfather or my parents, but voting is a privilege we are lucky enough to have in this country. Even here in America people died for the right to chose who represented them. And still not every country in the world has this privilege. There are still people in the world that would fight and die to have a voice in their government and people here take total advantage of the opportunity. Not voting is such an "American" (in the bad sense of the word) thing to do.

Now I am not saying our system is perfect, its clearly not. But people don't realize the impact they have by voting. So many elections are close where really every vote does count. Several county elections in VA were separated by only a handful (5 or 10) votes. And as we saw even presidential elections can come down to a small number of votes. So by choosing to come out to vote, you really can influence an election.

Many people say they don't like the candidates they have to choose from, they are all the same- so it doesn't make a difference who gets elected. People vote for the lesser of two evils. The point is though if people continue not to have a say, than nothing will ever change. I think its somewhat of a vicious cycle. Its very difficult to break.

Occasionally though, there is candidate running for office that you can really believe in, that has separated themselves from everyone else by their vision, their commitment to wanting to make the world a better place and their ability to unite. It is rare, I have only met a few candidates that actually do these things and don't just talk about them. But when you find one, its exciting and invigorating.

I support Barack Obama for President. I think he has the vision to change to the image of this country (which we desperately need), the ability to bring different sides of issues together and the rare ability to get people excited about politics (which is invaluable). He is a true leader and someone who could rejuvenate this country.

I am extremely excited about tomorrow, I only wish VA was voting tomorrow, but unfortunately I have another week. I hope that those of you who are in the Super Tuesday states take the time to vote tomorrow and impact who you want to see as the next president of our country. It will be an exciting day!