Voting

True confession . . .

I didn't cast my first vote until I was 40.

Yes, I was 40 freaking years old!

What an idiot!

Thousands of people shed their blood and gave their lives for me to have the opportunity to vote, and I blew it off like it was no big deal.

I'd like to blame it on youthful indiscretions, but 40 is far removed from any reasonable measure of youth.

I have few regrets, but not taking advantage of the right to vote is definitely one of them.

Here's hoping that others will learn from my foolish ways, and my newfound zeal will motivate them to do just the opposite.

That is . . .

To recognize the power that voting affords us.

To understand the responsibility that it holds.

To appreciate what so many around the world wish for.

It took me a while, OK a long while, to grasp the gravity of this vital civic responsibility, but now that I have, I want to shout it from the rooftops.

To all those Bernie supporters, and I am counted among them, we must focus on the task at hand, that is, keeping Trump out of the White House.

Hillary may not be all that we want or even need her to be, but even on her worse days, she'll be a thousand times better than that vile, disgusting, racist, sexist, narcissistic Trump.

So, take it from me.

If you've never voted before in your life, or if you've half-heartedly voted in the past, or if you're a regular voter, come November let us join together and vote in droves with a renewed energy so that our voices and our votes will drown out and defeat Trump, who would be an embarrassment and a danger to us all.