So like... why would anyone say this?

It's simple.

The people who throw the fliers in my face and beg me to vote have never struck me as the people who do much else. In fact, I don't like there attitude about it, at all.

Have we really made a difference just be waltzing into a booth covered in drapes and pulling a lever? No. We haven't. If you really care about anything, voting should be the most inconsequential thing on the planet to you. Why? Because that's out of your hands. But the REAL change. The REAL change you make for your self and those you love.

Energy problems? Bring it up to your work place, your school, your family. Moral concerns? Instruct your children well, be a crying shoulder for those who are burdened, positively reinforce those who's lives run astray. If the economy burdens you, you should be researching more conservative, cost-effective ways to live. If that proves worthless, you should be petitioning your Congressional reps. for action, and should also be speaking to your state government actively about things that can be done, and are being done.

The type of change we expect one man to do, we should first expect from ourselves. I do not know if I will be voting this election. and I applaud anyone that jumps ahead of me and says, "I certainly will not be voting."

I do not salute our democracy for the power it has given its citizens. I instead salute it for the protection it has given them: allowing me to stand up with my cross held high, allowing me to shield good friends of mine from racial, sexist, and homophobic slurs, and allowing me to call foul on greedy conglomerates who want my money and end up taking my vitality in the process.

I am thankful for the shields my country has given me, not the swords.