South Of Someplace: 2014

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

2014 Wrap Up

Everyone's experience is unique. I realize that 2014 was a difficult year for many people. Tragedy dominated the headlines on many occasions, and people work through their private struggles as well. I empathize with anyone who has had a difficult year. I don't want my remarks to be taken as an indication of a general trend. I had a good year while some others didn't. I am sensitive to each person's challenges, because I realize that fortunes can change at any time.

2014 has for me been a wonderful year. First among my many blessings is my family, who have been kind and supportive to me year after year. I was able to spend a number of weekends throughout the year with my Mom and Dad, sisters, nieces and nephews. As always, I'm most proud of my son and his continuing success.

I'm also blessed with a core of longtime friends. Our monthly dinners are filled with laughs and lively conversation. I'm always looking forward to the next one.

2014 was also one of the most productive years of my life.

I spent a lot of time in the office. That might not seem like a positive, depending on your perspective, but I enjoyed my projects and responsibilities and the opportunities that they provided. For instance, it was the first time that I had the chance to develop code on three database platforms in the same year (Oracle, Sybase, Teradata) all while working on complex computational models. That pushed my brain into some new cognitive territory.

In addition, I appreciated very much the opportunity to work with a large team of bright and highly capable colleagues, each of whom is also a supportive, thoughtful, and interesting person. There's no substitute for a fulfilling work life. Vacations and alcohol can't mask the damage of enduring a miserable career. I have been very fortunate in this regard.

I enjoyed significant productivity in my creative life, as well. Experiments with new photographic techniques yielded encouraging results, and I look forward to applying these techniques on future projects.

I completed a number of musical compositions, and others are in the works. I hope to set up a new website in 2015 as an avenue for sharing this new music.

I did quite a bit or writing this year. (Maybe that's a bit of an understatement.) When I tallied up the total number of posts on my various blogs, I was a bit shocked. It's a wonder that I didn't have to replace my computer keyboard along the way. (I did finally replace my old iPad where much of this writing occurred, so I guess that counts.)

I also wrote my first mystery story this past fall (Powder Blue Lies). I think it turned out well, and it has received some very generous commentary from the readers.

Along the way, I found time to run consistently throughout the year, spend two weeks in Greece, and teach ninety dance classes. I was able to spend some time polishing up my dance technique, as well. All of these activities, dance, travel, and exercise, bring me a tremendous sense of satisfaction.

So, yes, I guess it's fair to say that I accomplished quite a bit. I'm happy with the results. I enjoy the photos. I enjoy listening to the new music, and I think that the mystery story turned out very well. But I'm also proud of the effort. I couldn't have worked much harder. I came about as close to doing my theoretical best as I can imagine.

But there's much more to do - more projects, more creations, more skills to develop, more places to visit. I am looking forward to 2015 with eager anticipation.

Happy New Year! May you enjoy each new day and take advantage of all the possibilities that life presents.

It's Winter - Deal With It

It's winter. I understand. It's cold, it gets dark early, and frozen precipitation can cause all sorts of problems. So what?

Put your hat and scarf on, your coat, your boots, your gloves (long underwear if necessary), and get on with it.

Spring will come soon enough. People aren't meant to hibernate, and no one has time to waste.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Influential Moments

Critical moments can change the course of our lives. A handful of key experiences have redirected mine. At an early age, a live performance of music awakened a lifelong passion. An exhibition of world class landscape photography awakened another.

I had a vision one evening while sitting alone in my room - I was about eighteen at the time. I saw myself as an old man looking back over a wasted life. I had squandered one opportunity after another and was left bitter and unfulfilled. I was devastated. I felt so disappointed with myself and with my choices.

The experience was brief, and it existed completely in my imagination. Nevertheless, it frightened me and moved me in a very powerful way. I didn't want to become that person, that tragic shadow of a man. I didn't want to miss out on all of the wonderful rewards that a lifetime has to offer.

Since that day, I have been driven by a clear and powerful inner force. Things haven't always gone smoothly. I've made countless mistakes, and opportunities didn't always materialize as quickly as I thought or in the places where I had expected to find them. But I continued to work relentlessly and undeterred. I pursued my dreams, acted with purpose and consideration and gratitude, built a joyful, memorable, and meaningful life, and to the best of my ability, encouraged others to discover and follow paths that are meaningful to them.

That old, sad version of myself has all but faded from the realm of possibility. Even if my journey ends today, it has been rich beyond anything that I could have imagined as a young man. But the vision still drives me. There's more to do, more to experience, more to accomplish. That tragic old man still lives in my heart, pushing me onward. Every now and then I thank him for scaring the crap out of me before it was too late.

Job Satisfaction

Yesterday, I found myself actually looking forward to returning to the office after these few days off. I can't remember the last time I felt that way about a job.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Charles, Prince of Wales, Old Guy

I always assumed that Prince Charles was much older than I am - like, decades older. But he's not. And that bothers me. Because he looks old and stuffy. Do *I* look old and stuffy?

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

How To Make A Lasting Impression

Some people will underestimate you. Others will think that you can jump over the moon.

Either way, if you want to make a lasting impression, you need to exceed their expectations. All expectations.

People exist in two states - astonished, and bored out of their minds. Choose the result that you want, and then take your best shot. And remember, there aren't any do-overs.

A Curmudgeon's Christmas

Christmas gifts are like a tax on having a family. Not that having a family isn't taxing enough.

Hours of shopping in horrid weather, hours of wrapping, a small fortune spent - and for what? They rip them open in a few brief minutes and then run along to watch the television for the rest of the day.

Do the little dears actually like their gifts? You'll never know. Communication isn't their strong suit. Besides, they're too busy arguing to pay attention to an old fart like you or anything that you brought.

Next year, they can all go Scrooge themselves! Humbug!

Monday, December 22, 2014

An Epidemic of Violence

The ambush killing of two New York City police officers this past weekend has sparked tremendous outrage. It's difficult to accept the brazen treachery of this heinous crime. The resulting frustration has led some to level blame publicly. Some blame the Mayor. Some blame the protesters. But such blame is misplaced and misses the larger issue at hand.

For context, we can reflect upon a second tragedy that occurred during the past week. An ex-Marine in Pennsylvania shot and killed his wife and five members of her family, including children.

On the surface, the two incidents don't appear to be related. But they speak to a larger societal problem that has nothing to do with police or protests or grand jury decisions.

The United States is suffering from an epidemic of rage. Angry people with access to powerful handguns are slaughtering innocent civilians at an unprecedented rate.

In 1969, Charles Manson and his followers shocked the world when they killed six people in two separate incidents. The killings seemed to arbitrary, pointless, and cruel. Those of us who are old enough to remember the Manson killings still have never quite made our peace with what happened.

If the Manson killings happened today, they would be in the news for perhaps a week. And then another mass murder would occur. And then another and another and another.

Society is moving backward. An angry person with a gun can show up anywhere at any time and start killing indiscriminately. It happens in schools. It happens at universities. It happens in stores and shopping malls and movie theaters. It happens on military bases. It happens in churches. It happens in factories and offices and other places of work.

It happens all the time.

The ex-Marine who killed his wife and her family last week - angry person with a gun.

The Baltimore resident who killed two NYC police officers over the weekend - angry person with a gun.

The guy who killed his girlfriend while she earned extra money as a holiday retail clerk over the

Thanksgiving weekend - angry person with a gun.

Dozens of school shootings in the past year - angry people with guns.

Is the pattern unclear?

We have a mental health crisis in this country. Intersect our lack of will to address this problem with easy access to the most powerful firearms ever manufactured, and we have a mortal crisis on our hands.

Some argue that we would be safer if we were all armed. But that has now been clearly disproven. The victims of this weekend's shooting were armed and trained to use their weapons. Guns won't protect us from a society gone mad.

We as a nation need to come to grips with some serious issues before more police officers are ambushed, before more innocent people are massacred week after week after bloody week. We should have tackled these issues decades ago. Every year that we pretend that the problem is manageable or it's covered by existing regulations, more people will die senselessly.

Happy Holidays - The Controversial Christmas Greeting

Happy Holidays!

This is such a joyous and cheerful greeting! How did it become embroiled in so much controversy?

Is "Happy Holidays" a legitimate Christmas greeting? Or is it deliberately watered down so as not to offend non-Christians?

There is a school of thought that links "Happy Holidays" with the aggressive doctrines of political correctness that dominate American society today. But there's one problem with this theory.

Political correctness rose to prominence in the 1980's. People have been saying "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" for far longer. I remember seeing these phrases written on Christmas cards back in the early 1960's (about 20 years BPC).

In that bygone era, unmarried women were still known as Miss So-and-so. Words like "Ms." and "African-American" had yet to be invented, as did the entire notion of political correctness. When someone wished you "Happy Holidays," everyone accepted that it was synonymous with "Merry Christmas."

That said, we live in a different time now. Political correctness dominates social interaction and public communication in the United States.

Visit a retail business and say "Merry Christmas" to an employee. They'll probably wish you "Happy Holidays" in return. I don't know for a fact that their companies compel them to answer in this way, but I suspect that this is so in at least some circumstances. If that's true, it's tragic. Why stigmatize the "Merry Christmas" greeting by punishing employees for saying it? "Do you punish them for saying "Happy Easter?" Or forbid them from mentioning Bastille Day or Cinco? It's absurd.

(I would have said that it's "idiotic," but that term offends some politically correct people.)

I have to agree that this is indeed political correctness gone haywire. But just because some people are coerced to say "Happy Holidays" to strangers, that doesn't mean that it's an inferior Christmas greeting.

Christmas is more than one day. It's an entire season that comprises a number of holidays. The four Sundays of Advent. Christmas Eve. The Twelve Days of Christmas. Epiphany (Twelfth Night). And just for good measure, New Year's Day and the Winter Solstice (formerly known as Yule) are bundled in there, as well.

So, I don't see anything anti-Christian about the Happy Holidays greeting. After all, we Christians have a lot of holidays at this time of year. We celebrate all of those holidays as part of the Christmas season.

When I greet people at this time of year, I say "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays." I think that covers the bases pretty well. Christmas is my holiday, and I wish them the same level of joy and love that I feel at this time of year. If that upsets them, then they probably need the Christmas Spirit even more than they realize.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Cuba

Open relations with Cuba. It's a good idea. Twenty years too late, but it's a good idea. We have relations with Vietnam. What's the difference?

Let's start spending dollars in Cuba before Putin decides to use the island as a missile launching pad. We don't need a new Cold War. I hope to visit Havana one day soon. And I don't even like cigars.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Beyond Senseless

I can understand one deranged person attacking a school. We've seen this in the US many times, in Scotland, Norway, and a number of other places. But why would an organized group of adults deliberately target children? What is to be gained? Is this supposed to raise sympathy for a cause? If so, it failed miserably.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Enigma

I haven't been out to a feature film all year, but I am very much looking forward to 'The Imitation Game', the true story of Alan Turing and the team of British mathematicians and cryptographers who broke Germany's Enigma code during WWII.

The Conceit Of Ignorance

An ignorant man who lives in a cave will tell you all about the sky and insist that he's right.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Trial By Jury

Trial by jury. Chain of evidence. Due process of law. These practices were not established to pamper criminals. Their purpose is to protect the innocent.

The monarchs of Europe once had the power to imprison, tax, torture, and execute their subjects at will. How can an individual defend himself from the wrath of an vengeful state? How can the falsely accused demonstrate that blame has been misplaced?

The mob mentality is even more dangerous. Lynching, stoning, flogging, dragging, burning at the stake. History is full of tales of hideous injustice at the hands of angry mobs.

The criminal justice system makes grievous and well publicized errors from time to time. Innocent people are jailed by mistake, and killers and other criminals escape conviction through trickery of prosecutorial negligence. But those are exceptions. Most of the time, the legal system delivers its intended result: justice. Those responsible for harming others are punished, and those who have been falsely accused are exonerated.

Sometimes, when we feel emotional about a topic, it's easy to lose sight of how important these fundamental rights really are. I'm certain that it's difficult for victims and the families of victims to endure the tedious pace of justice. I sympathize. But we can't apply fundamental principles selectively.

I have heard people defend the torture of prisoners in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "They're terrorists," they claim. "Why should we care how they are treated?" It's a legitimate question.

But aside from concerns about the accuracy of information derived by torture, how do we know that the man that we waterboarded a hundred times was indeed a terrorist? Did we catch him in the act of trying to blow someone up? That might be compelling enough. Or did he just happen to be in a town where someone who looks like him and has a similar name might be a terrorist?

Again we are presented with the classic problem of the falsely accused prisoner. Before we hang him, should we not determine beyond a reasonable doubt that he was indeed the person who committed the crime? And not some unlucky guy who happens to live in the same neighborhood?

How would you feel if you were the accused? Or if it were someone in your family? Held without charges. Without a chance to clear your name. Subject to imprisonment and torture for months and years? Civilization has worked diligently to prevent that from happening in recent centuries. And yet, notice how eagerly some people want to turn back the clock on progress.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Using Physics to Pick Up Women

My friend Vektor uses his knowledge of physics to pick up women. I know, I know! It sounds unbelievable, but he explained how it works.

His opening topic is always light. If he doesn't get a reaction, he relies on fluid dynamics to overcome inertia and accelerate the discussion. If he detects any waves, he'll explain the gravity of his position.

As things progress, he strings the woman along with charm, especially if she has a nice bottom. He has some quarks, but he's not strange. He likes to laugh and claims that, in principle, it relieves uncertainty. If he can get the lady to laugh, that increases the probability of them being unified.

This approach has been working well for Vektor. Recently, he's hosted a number of intensive all night sessions on thermodynamics and oscillatory motion. I think he's been with Zeta and Rho, but he doesn't disclose his partners. Quantum mechanics taught him the relative importance of being discrete.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Lashing Out In Frustration

I saw a guy spit on a bus today. The light had changed, and it was time for the pedestrians to walk. The bus was making a turn and had to wait until the light in his direction turned red to get through the intersection. It's a fairly common scenario. As a pedestrian, you have to double check that the interaction is clear.

A guy waiting across the street from me apparently took offense to the bus' late entry into the crosswalk. So he puckered up and spit on the bus. The bus driver didn't notice; he was looking straight ahead, not to the side where the spitting man was standing. And the bus obviously didn't sustain any damage from the saliva.

No meaning was communicated via the gesture. The spitter lashed out like a two-year-old to no effect whatsoever except to express his own inability to cope with frustration.

Lashing out in frustration is perhaps the lowest level of the human experience. It demonstrates an acute loss of control over ones own emotional stability. And yet, it's extremelh common. We all get frustrated from time to time, occasionally to the point of lashing out at others. But some people live in this state, people who are quick to lash out at others in expression of their own frustration. It's pathetic. It's frightening. Unfortunately, it explains a lot of the negative incidents that occur in our lives and in society in general.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Retail Holiday Displays

Here's a thought about holiday decorations in retail stores.

If a retail store sets up elaborate decorations or window displays for the Christmas season, they should include Jesus somewhere in the display.

He could be represented by a small figurine, a little baby, perhaps, not a full-grown preaching carpenter leading around a dozen apostles. The store can surround Baby Jesus with wreathes and evergreens and gift boxes and teddy bears and toys and stockings and sugar-plum fairies if they think that the presence of a religious figure would be offensive to someone.

(I'm not sure who that someone would be. Just about everyone understands that Christmas is the Mass of Christ. It's not a surprise, and it's not really much of a secret.)

But Jesus should be there, small and tasteful, but prominent. Centrally located. Hard to miss.

It's Christmas. Seasonal decorations just don't seem complete when they exclude the guy who started the whole thing. It would be like designing a presidential library that doesn't have any pictures of the president that it is supposed to honor. ("Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Reagan! No pictures of you will be permitted in your library. I'm sure that you'll understand.")

Presumably, stores decorate during the holidays in an attempt to attract customers. Just about everything that a retail store does publicly is aimed at attracting customers. So, here's the other half of the idea.

If Jesus isn't visible in the decorations, I'm not going to shop at that store. They have officially lost one customer. And not just for the holiday season. For as long as they persist in their non-Jesus holiday decorating.

Now, maybe a whole bunch of other customers who don't agree with me will show support for the store and shop there more often. That's fine. I'm not encouraging a boycott. This is a personal decision based on a personal preference. There are stores that I have been avoiding for years for this very reason. I don't spend my money there anymore. Ever. I'm sure that they don't miss my dollars. But I have convictions, and I'm going to stand by them.

And to be fair, I do still visit those anti-Jesus stores from time to time. I walk in, use the toilet, and leave. After all, to forgive is divine, so I anoint them with my holy water from time to time.

If a store steadfastly opposes displaying Jesus in their store, I support that choice, as well. I'll even continue shopping there if they'll agree to make one small concession. It might even save them money.

Don't decorate. Don't decorate at all for the holidays. If you can't find it in your heart to include one little Babu Jesus figure in your holiday decorations, you shouldn't HAVE holiday decorations. Keep your windows and floor space completely secular, if that's how you feel. I'll honor your wishes, and I'll continue to shop in your store. Just please don't be a holiday hypocrite and put up a bunch of decorations that don't express the true meaning of the holiday.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Criminal Justice System

One criminal trial - or the lack thereof - does not determine the state of a nation. All kinds of things happen in court. OJ was acquitted. George Zimmerman was acquitted. The guy who shot teens over loud music at a gas station will be locked away for decades. These things go all over the place.

I am sympathetic to the fact that minorities are often the victims of an unfair shake in the legal system, but that doesn't mean that every cop is guilty.

I didn't follow the Ferguson trial closely, but a grand jury spent a lot of time going over the evidence and the testimony. Sometimes the legal system makes grievous errors. And sometimes, they get it right, but the truth isn't very popular.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Accept Your Brain For Who It Is

When I was young, I planned projects and activities meticulously. I believed that a disciplined approach would lead to the best results in the majority of cases. "Winging it" seemed like an undisciplined and irresponsible temptation of fate. I if I had no plan, then surely things would go wrong when my luck ran out.

Over time, I discovered that I perform best when I react to circumstances in the moment and allow my thoughts and ideas to flow freely. I don't know whether I became an improvisor over time as I gained confidence in my creative skills, or if I was inherently an improvisor all along, albeit one who allowed fear and inflexible ideas about control to delay my creative development.

Thankfully, I understand myself better now. I encourage my mind to work the way that it wants to, even when that approach contradicts other people's ideas about how things ought to be done. It was critical to make that leap, or I would have remained stuck in creative first gear.

Bottom line: Your brain wants to work in a certain way. If you fight with your brain or try to enforce some other model of productivity on yourself, your life will be one big headache.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Ever Had One Of Those Days?

It's shaping up to be one of those days.

I woke up with a stiff neck. I needed to shave but didn't have time. I decided to take the subway in an effort to speed up the commute, but an "earlier incident" delayed service and resulted in mobbed platforms. Several trains came through eventually, but each one was so packed that only a handful of people could squeeze on.

I waited for some time. When a train with enough space to board finally arrived, some guy with a full-sized bicycle pushed his way onto the car crowding it even more. What an inconsiderate jerk! He could have waited for the next train instead of pushing on with people who had waited far longer.

During a meeting with a colleague, I dropped my pen in the trash. I went to Starbucks. The cashier dropped my pastry but caught it in her bare hand. She offered to replace it, but I said, "no problem, don't worry about it," and took it as is. I got back to the office, and we had a fire drill. And I discovered that someone whose help I need is about to go on a long vacation.

I'll mention, for the record, that yesterday on the sidewalk I saw a man get into a nasty shouting match with a drag queen. Ugly trash talk was tossed back and forth. Every train car had someone playing music without headphones. Is the full moon rising this week?

Okay, Fate... I've had enough of your shenanigans. I don't know what you have planned next, but I'm ready for you. Throw me that weak-assed shit.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Support for President Obama

President Obama,

I supported you when it was the cool thing to do, but that's not why I supported you. I supported you because you seemed like a fair and intelligent person who had some good ideas.

At the time, the Republicans had nothing but BAD ideas -

- perpetual war (notably in areas with lots of oil and natural gas)

- secret prisons

- state-sponsored torture

- wiretapping and spying on Americans without warrants

- consolidation of power within the Executive Branch (USA PATRIOT Act)

- record deficit spending

- record national debt

- relaxation of environmental protection regulations

- relaxation of regulations on the financial sector

So, I voted for you. And I voted for you again.

Did you do everything that I wanted you to do? No. But you did a heck of a lot given the fierce (and often senseless) partisan opposition that you faced in Congress.

- You ended the perpetual wars.

- You took a strong stand against torturing prisoners.

- You prosecuted terrorists (effectively) in open court rather than in secret gulags.

- You repealed the tax breaks that raised the deficit but did not help the economy.

- You led us out of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

- Your policies saved the American automobile industry from extinction

- You delivered a health care system that is not permitted to discriminate against sick people.

- You reduced deficit spending by a large margin.

- You reduced unemployment to Year 2000 levels.

- During your presidency, the stock market has reached record highs.

- And you brought a certain Mr. Bin Laden to justice.

Mr. President, I still support you, because you did a good job. Because I hope that you'll continue to do a good job. And because the opposition's policies are still dangerously irresponsible.

Friday, November 7, 2014

The Case Against Obamacare

I'm trying to understand why it's unacceptable to provide an opportunity for more people to purchase health insurance.

Could someone please explain that in simple terms?

Such as, if we let more people buy health insurance, ISIS will take over the world.

Or, if we let more people buy health insurance, Iran will nuke Israel.

Or, if we let more people purchase health insurance, the polar ice caps will melt and much of our farm land will turn to desert.

Or, if we let more people purchase health insurance, there will suddenly be a rash of deadly school shootings across America.

Help me out here. I want to understand why the Affordable Care Act is so horrible that we need to focus more energy on repealing it than we do on any of these other issues.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Exit Poll Anger

According to CNN exit polls, 8 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Congress is doing its job. Six in ten voters are either angry or dissatisfied with both the White House and the Republican Congressional Leadership.

So what did the voters do? They put more Republicans in Congress.

Keep in mind also that nationwide, Democrats have a higher approval rating than Republicans (44 vs 40 percent).

So, I'm shaking my head this morning. Apparently, voters prefer the party that for the past four years has consistently blocked legislation, blocked key presidential appointments, opposed immigration reform, opposed funding to care for veterans, shut down the government, cause the United States to default on its debt obligation for the first time in history, and worked hard state by state to keep Medicare from reaching people who need health care coverage.

Hopefully, this is just the result of the Citizens United ruling and the sudden influx of unlimited corporate money in elections. The alternative is to conclude that the electorate is absurdly irrational.

Electile Dysfunction

So much for the theory that the polls would under-represent Hispanics. So much for under-representing young people who don't have traditional land phone lines. So much for marijuana ballot initiatives making any sort of difference. The polls had actually OVERESTIMATED Democratic prospects.

The Democrats were soundly humiliated tonight. They lost every close Senate race except for New Hampshire and Virginia, and those were defensive races for Democrat incumbents. The Reps effectively won a landslide. These are the same Reps that have stalled every progressive policy for four years, forced the government into shutdown, and caused the ratings agencies to downgrade the credit worthiness of the country. Those people won tonight, and they won big.

My working theory of the moment is that Democrats like to complain more than they like to vote. Reps complain, too, but they back up their convictions at the polls. If the Dems had turned out in force in battleground states, the results would have been different. If you don't vote, don't complain.

For the next two years, no meaningful firearm safety legislation will be passed. More family planning clinics will close. The fossil fuel industries will get more tax breaks. Immigration reform will be left to rot in the fields. Environmental protection and alternative energy will be forgotten and unfunded. Net neutrality is in serious jeopardy. Banking and finance reforms will be rolled back. The Affordable Care Act probably will be crippled financially. President Obama's nominees will continue to be blocked, and the President himself has a good chance not only of being impeached, but actually removed from office by the new Senate.

The United States is moving in the wrong direction, wrong for today and wrong for history. Our country is a shell of what it could be, because progressives didn't care enough to vote in large enough numbers. That's the sad and bitter truth.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Please Vote

An article on CNN says that only about 40 percent or eligible Americans will vote in today's elections. Forty percent. It's hard to imagine that the the other sixty percent doesn't care at all. The non-voters will be impacted by the policies that the government sets, just like the voters will.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans will have their right to vote DENIED by cunning and nefarious voter suppression tactics, tactics that target youth and minority voters in particular.

The whole situation is revolting. If you claim to be an American, then be an American, and do everything in your power to vote. And complain like mad if they won't let you do it.

And here's one more thing to remember. People fought and died to keep this country free from the wills of kinds and dictators and despots. People fought and died to preserve this republic which established, and so far, protects the right of each adult citizen to vote. Honor their sacrifice and do your part. Going to a polling station for a few minutes is such a small inconvenience compared with the price that these brave men and women paid for their country. Don't let their sacrifices go in vain. Vote. Please vote. Take a few minutes out of your day, and vote. Just vote. That's not too much to ask, is it?