I must confess that I don’t remember the last time I voted. It’s possible that I’ve never voted though I think I remember filling out a ballot once or twice. Many of my non-voting years I’ve felt as though I was given the choice between bad candidate A and bad candidate B (here’s Southpark’s version) and I was so unaware of the ballot measures that my vote would have been uniformed and pointless. Obviously there’s some faulty reasoning in there that could be argued against, but my assumption is that in general many people who don’t vote feel and think a similar way. And if we’re completely honest a big part of it is simply laziness and forgetfulness…if we’re being honest.

I could also make a few different arguments around the idea that by not voting I’m actually casting a condemning vote on the system itself, on its brokenness, and on the fact that I believe that hope for our future is found elsewhere (both as individuals and as a nation). But if I were to be completely honest I’d have to say that laziness and forgetfulness are a larger part of why I never voted.

Honestly…laziness and forgetfulness, that’s really what it’s all about with me.

Well those days are over ’cause I’m officially registered to vote! Ok, maybe I’m making too bold a statement because I have not actually voted for anything yet but at the very least I’m positioned in such a way to be able to vote when the time comes.

To be perfectly honest I’m still feeling very indifferent about national politics (particularly the presidential race) but what has my attention is local politics. Local politics actually affect my neighbors in very real and immediate ways. And the one issue locally that really has my attention has to do with supporting our local public transit. The reality, and its a heavy one, is that if we don’t pass this particular measure 30% of our bus routes will be closed and all bus routes on Sunday will shut down. This is a huge flippin’ deal. This is an issue that will greatly affect the poor of our community, their ability to work and keep jobs and their ability to buy groceries at a grocery store rather than a convenience store among other things. Honestly, this is a very big deal for those that don’t have three cars and enough money to pay for gas to commute 45 minutes to work every day.

So I’ve decided to vote ’cause I want my bus system. Is that odd? Is it odd that after all these years it’s this issue that caused me to (re)register and actually vote? Sometimes I surprise even myself…honestly