Elections!

     My parents have a saying: If you don't vote you can't bitch. When I was younger I didn't quite understand. Even if you don't vote you can still complain about what's going on... how does the statement work? But since I've gotten older I understand more what they meant rather than the words they were saying.
     When you vote, you have the ability to change the world, you can determine whether or not a law passes, who goes into office and what policies are important. Even a "no' vote is effective decision making and a contribution to the welfare of the world. If you don't make that choice to influence the world, you can't complain about what goes on it.
     Where the right to complain comes into play is when what you've voted, or put in your two cents on, is declined or doesn't go as planned. There are still limits in what you can do to change the world, but voting is the easiest way to get your thoughts out there and have some impact on the rest of the world.
     This year all I hear is the hype about how one candidate is worse than another and how their candidate is the best thing for the country (from both sides). What I want to hear is what they'll actually do; if they can get their plans implemented then there's more of a chance I'll actually care about what they're supposedly fighting for. However, I don't quite understand how each of the main candidates became more and more extreme while running for office. At the beginning of this mess they both sounded somewhat okay--they were more about the people's opinions than the party lines.
     With only four more days to figure this all out, I'm getting sick of both candidates' trash ads. It seems like every single place I go (television, radio, online, the newspaper) has some sort of ad bashing the other side and their politics. Why can't we just state what we want to do in government and get over the egos?
     Good Luck and go vote!

Just a thought....
Stephie