Nope, Uh-Uh, Ain't Gonna Do It

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I turned 18 in 1978, and I registered to vote. I've voted every year since then. Not this year. A vote is a privilege and a right. It's one of those things I'd like to think (in my naiveté) that I served to protect. It's also an option. As the band Rush (a band I don't like) sang in a song ("Freewill," a song I don't like), "If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice." You have the Constitutionally-guaranteed right to go to the house of worship of your choice. That doesn't mean, however, that you must go to a house of worship. Voting is not compulsory in the U.S. Nor should it be. It is, however, something I consider very important, not something that you should just do for the sake of doing. So I'm sitting this one out. Nope. Uh-uh. I ain't gonna do it. I can not, in good conscience, walk into a voting location, show my ID, sign my name swearing that I'm me, and put a mark on a ballot that says I believe this person or that person is worthy of the office of President of the United States. I don't even think either major party candidate is qualified. You may call that "voter apathy." That's fine. That's your right of free speech. But you don't have to reply just because you have the right to reply. In a similar manner, the right to not vote, just like the right to vote, is guaranteed. If you feel the same way, consider this post a "get out of being shamed into voting for free" card (similar to those Monopoly "get out of jail free" cards) from a disabled veteran. Oh, here's a great Steve Goodman song about the election. I particularly love the line, "the winner's always someone else and the loser's always us." And this song is from 1971.