Nancy Pelosi

I must admit, everytime I hear this name, I have to look around me. I don't know why I do that but I have tremendous admiration for this lady. For those who don't know, Nancy Pelosi is the California Congresswoman from the 8th district, who is now, the Democratic House Leader. Imagine Hilary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi running the berth for the White House...
Did it sink in yet? It would be a strong pair. Tough one to beat too, at least that is what I think. Anyways, that is not the point of this post.

So, who voted during the midterm elections a couple of weeks ago? Did you? Oh you didn't vote? Are you kidding me? I won't hold that against you but read
the King's One Week Later and tell me if I am over reacting.

D, two words: Spare me!

It has only been a week! Maybe we should give the Dems more than 12 years to see if things really turn around. Did anyone notice the gas prices go down by almost a buck just before the elections, and now, they are almost back up to the price it was at 8 weeks prior to the elections? Did anyone notice the slump in the Stock Market?
Voting may not have changed much but at least some who have loved ones in Iraq-Bush’s war to reap Iraq of its oil- may actually have a chance to spend New Year’s Day with their loved ones.
I hate to be this direct about this matter but we have to realise the power of a single voice. Without Martin Luther's single voice, we won't have some of the privileges we now enjoy, albeit limited.
Things don’t change much because of a mentality like the one expressed by Chuck Gillespie (fictional) who would go to the polls and check all Republican or Democratic names on the ballot without even stopping to think that he has lost almost a million dollars in the stock market, the value of his house has drastically decreased, and they are now more vulnerable than ever to die in a terrorist attack even before 9/11. But again that is democracy-government for the people, by the people and with the people.
Things don’t change either if you would adopt the mentality being expressed in this post. Don’t get me wrong, here because I do validate your logic here. But you may not have noticed that things changed because you may have actually contributed to things being that bad by not voting at all. Your high school Alma Mater may now have metal detectors because you failed to go vote on gun control years ago and maybe your vote could have swung the decision the other way.
Voting is the only human way possible for your opinion to be heard. To have the right and not exercise it, I think you should be taken to the guillotine. People died to secure that right for you and me. And still, in many parts of Africa, Cameroon for instance, people don’t have the right to vote or they are allowed to vote but the elections are stolen by the incumbent, just like Bush did Florida in the yesteryears.

My view that not voting should be treated as a capital offence may be too fundamentalist but I see no reason to have the right to vote and not exercise that right just because you don’t think you would make a difference and then ONE WEEK-only one week- after the elections, you come out fluttering, pointing out how things haven’t changed yet. The Dems took over the House of Senate and Congress. They did not take all executive power from the Reps yet. Senate and Congress can enact laws, etc but the Head of State can veto any one of them.

One vote, one voice is a powerful tool. Had Nelson Mandela not stood up in defiance of the Apartheid system in South Africa; that country may still have been under the worse form of racial segregation ever known to mankind. Your vote may not have counted because your candidate lost, but you never really would understand what that one vote could have done had it come down to just your vote in order for your candidate to win.