Every Damned Election Cycle...
... it happens. Someone (multiple someones, generally) has to post a certain statement having to do with voting and complaining.
There's very little more infuriating to me than being told if I choose to forfeit an opportunity to exercise one right I must forfeit another. Yes, I fully intend to vote in the current election cycle, but if I didn't and later found myself complaining about the occupant of the White House I didn't vote for or against, woe to the person who might try to tell me I have no right to complain. Hey, want to tell me I've forfeited my freedom of speech? How about I arrange for you to forfeit your right to live, WITH MY FORKLIFT!? (No, I won't be murdering anyone over this, but I might well feel like it. And five-and-a-half tons of metal-on-wheels is good for making a point.)
If we're going to continue to have the gall to call voting a right, the least we can do is acknowledge the flipside of exercising a right is no less valid an approach to participation in civic life. I mean, it's not like you have to speak, own a gun, print pamphlets, adhere to a religion, gather peaceably, or otherwise do anything related to what's in the Bill of Rights. You can choose to keep your mouth shut, not own a gun, not print pamphlets, not adhere to a religion, not gather peaceably, etc.
Freedom consists, in part, of having the ability to choose not to do something.
Wouldn't it be a wonder if we all voted, and didn't complain afterward?
There's very little more infuriating to me than being told if I choose to forfeit an opportunity to exercise one right I must forfeit another. Yes, I fully intend to vote in the current election cycle, but if I didn't and later found myself complaining about the occupant of the White House I didn't vote for or against, woe to the person who might try to tell me I have no right to complain. Hey, want to tell me I've forfeited my freedom of speech? How about I arrange for you to forfeit your right to live, WITH MY FORKLIFT!? (No, I won't be murdering anyone over this, but I might well feel like it. And five-and-a-half tons of metal-on-wheels is good for making a point.)
If we're going to continue to have the gall to call voting a right, the least we can do is acknowledge the flipside of exercising a right is no less valid an approach to participation in civic life. I mean, it's not like you have to speak, own a gun, print pamphlets, adhere to a religion, gather peaceably, or otherwise do anything related to what's in the Bill of Rights. You can choose to keep your mouth shut, not own a gun, not print pamphlets, not adhere to a religion, not gather peaceably, etc.
Freedom consists, in part, of having the ability to choose not to do something.
Wouldn't it be a wonder if we all voted, and didn't complain afterward?