Election day

[unixronin]

To be a citizen in a democracy, representative or direct, is not just a privilege.  It is also a responsibility, to keep that democracy on the right track and see that it does not go astray.  A citizen of that democracy who has the right to vote, who is happy to partake in the privileges, but who cannot be bothered to exercise the responsibility of using their vote, is only half a citizen.

I went out and voted today.  Did you?

(It was an optical-scan paper ballot, by the way.)

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

There's a reason I picked this particular usericon for this post. It is the character chugo, standing for duty and loyalty in the samurai code of Bushido.

It is indeed a duty. However, it is a duty which not every citizen of every democracy has had the right to perform. Universal suffrage is taken for granted now, but historically it is comparatively rare. This is the larger context in which I chose my words.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

I missed the icon's meaning. My Orient background comes from China.