Freedom isn't free. It requires your attention, if nothing else.

[barking_iguana]

This is nominally about baseball, but it's really about the shared responsibility of elections and the shared responsibility of living in society

Comments

Voting is the least of it

[polydad]

I agree with your intent, and wish to point out that political involvement is not limited to elections -- in fact, the major political parties have done a very good job of reducing them to farce.

Here in Oregon, almost none of the corruption occurs in the form of manipulation of the voting process; it comes in how the legislation is *written*. So effective lobbying has to take the form of reading each piece of legislation in detail, finding the hidden easter eggs, and going down to Salem and banging on one's representatives until they do something about it.

This same tactic is the only thing that works even if one voted against and detests one's representative(s). It doesn't matter which team they ran with, they're *my* representative *now*, and I damned well want 'em to do their job.

Re: Voting is the least of it

[barking_iguana]

Being moderately informed and voting is the part that's a duty. The dues, along with taxes and a degree of public civility, that are the dues for living in a free country. We also need people who will do more than that, who are more than moderately informed, who inform others, who advocate before legislators, and who let the legislators know that their actions will be known.