Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

Not Voting

posted at 2:10 pm
on Nov. 4, 2008

Comments: 0 so far

Permalink

 

Previous entry:
Halloween Song Mix

Next entry:
My Day

I was all set to post a blog post of superiority today.  Because I’ve been voting all over the place, and plan do to some more voting around here soon.

I voted for U.S. president (absentee ballot), in the Canadian election, and plan to vote for city council here on Nov. 15.

And I was feeling, let’s face it, sad but also a little smug, because of all the people I know who didn’t vote.  Someone I know (no names, I’m going easy on them) was too busy on Canadian election day, and many of the U.S. citizens I know here in Canada didn’t get registered in time to vote, if they even bothered to try.

Side note here: For a U.S. citizen, your absentee ballot goes to the state you most recently lived in.  Which for me is California, and to be frank, I might as well have balled up my ballot, stuffed it in a bottle and thrown it in the ocean for all the influence it will have in California.  If I had only used to live in Ohio or Pennsylvania or somewhere that a vote might have more impact…. Anyhow, because I can’t vote in any of the other California measures or elections or ballots, my vote is pretty near useless.  Ah well.  Still, I did my duty.

But then recently, sitting around with some friends, I realized that the unthinkable had happened: I’d missed an election.  Turns out there was a by-election in my riding, and I had misunderstood and thought it was for a neighbouring riding.  (There was, in fact, also a by-election in the next riding over, hence my confusion.)  And suddenly, I went from being safely smug to being a non-voting asshole.  Oh no! Don’t let this happen to you.  Vote today.

(I plan to make it up by recycling a little more styrofoam and replacing two lightbulbs with CFLs.)



 
 

 

Previous entry:
Halloween Song Mix

Next entry:
My Day

Overheard

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

...who said it?

“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”

...who said it?

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

...who said it?

“I play with variables constantly.”

...who said it?

“Only the person who has learned Continual Love coming from a heart of Gratitude/Worship can effectively deal with the problem of loneliness.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

There are no comments for this entry ... yet. So leave one already! Go on!

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email: (optional)


URL: (optional)


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2024 Mar 28

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)