Don't Forget To Vote!

Thursday is election day in Memphis. Do not forget to vote. Even if this is the most unimpressive and uninspiring election that I can recall, one with options so awful you hate to pull any lever, we must still do our part. Otherwise, the forces of status quo reign.

Right now, over in Iraq, are men and women who will soon be given the first meaningful votes they have known in over thirty years. Flocks of candidates will vie for their place in the first representative, democratic government many Iraqis have ever seen.

We sent our men and women over there to "secure these blessings" for them, and hundreds have died in the process. For us not to vote here is to make a mockery of their sacrifice over there. It's to make hollow the gift we have given the Iraqis.

The American experiment, conceived in Great Britain and birthed in North America, that was launched over 220 years ago has transformed the world. Every decade, one more nation finally throws off the tyranny of the few to grasp the liberty of self-rule and self-determination. One by one, the world comes closer and closer to the dream of a planet of people living in freedom.

That dream depends on you. On your vote. It really does. Do not throw away what so many have fought and worked and most certainly died for. As we have made a gift to the Iraqis, so have our ancestors made a gift to us, an unbroken chain of promise and hope. Do not break your link. Don't let down the side.

Vote.