voting

"come, come my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles and see the world is moving."

— elizabeth cady stanton

i voted today - stood in line for an hour and a half to exercise my rights as an american citizen, my right to express my opinion and my right to have my voice heard.

i have friends who don't vote, and while it makes me sad, i suppose that if people have the right to vote then they also have the right to not vote. are they taking their rights for granted? maybe. but it's easy to take something for granted when it's been a reality all your life. i don't know anyone who was there in 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote, and i don't know anyone who was there seventy years earlier at the seneca falls convention that started the women's suffrage movement. none of my friends were alive in 1870, when the fifteenth amendment was passed to eliminate discrimination based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." it's all just a bunch of stuff we read about in our high school history books, i guess. but i have a feeling that this election is something that our children are going to be reading about in their high school history books. and i, for one, am proud to be a part of it.

to learn about the candidates and where they stand on the issues that matter to you, go here or here.

or, to take an issues-only quiz that will match you up with your ideal candidate, go here.

to find your polling place, go here.

but don't just stand there.