With all of the talk, hand-wringing and partisan bickering on the voter ID bill, something has been lost in a miasma of politics: actually registering to vote.
While those on either side of the voter ID bill have bickered over whether the measure disenfranchises a person from their consitutional right to vote, there are thousands of Pennsylvanians, including some in this county, who are doing the job themselves.
Those thousands of people have chosen to throw away their right to participate in their government. No political party, no government official, no cultural edict has taken it from them. They have done it to themselves.
Every election year you can hear the tired refrains: "My vote doesn't mean anything." "I don't like any of the candidates." "They do what they want anyway."
To each of those sage observations we can only say that your refusal to participate in the system is a de facto vote for each of those things.
By abdicating your right to chose your representative, steer government policy and spend never more than 10 minutes doing so, you are a symptom of the problem with American Democracy - apathy.
Today is an important day for you. Today is the day you make a decision. Will you participate in this government? Will you make the effort to make your voice heard?
Today is the last day to register to vote in the November 6 general election.
In case you haven't been paying attention, the rest of us will be electing this nation's chief executive for the next four years, along with the platform he and his party have taken the past 18 months to explain.
Registering and voting in some countries are mandatory duties. In America, they are rights.
Countless men and women have died for them. Don't throw them away.