Politics is a part of living life...

Every once in a while I run into somebody who has written off politics for one reason or another.  Oh, they have opinions which they willingly share at the drop of a hat, they might be extremely competent and intelligent but... they have come to the conclusion that participation in politics is an exercise in futility.

I could point to our gun-politics experiences here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  From the 1960s forward we began to see a slide to New York/Massachusetts style gun control.  We had a hodge podge or potpourri of laws and ordinances in our various counties, cities, and towns.  It was becoming impossible to know what was legal and what wasn't.  Holders of concealed handgun permits were few and far between.  Frankly, it didn't seem that the National Rifle Association or the Virginia Rifle and Pistol Association were doing much good on this front.  To many it seemed that these organizations had either given up or been compromised by "the establishment".  Then, in northern Virginia (NOVA) counties of Fairfax and Arlington, we had some activists coalesce an organization now known as the Virginia Citizens' Defense League.  Since that time that organization has grown by leaps and bounds based on the grass-roots efforts of its members.  We have "shall issue" concealed handgun permits, we have eliminated the hodgepodge of laws as one travels from one jurisdiction to another, and we have reversed the trend to state government control of our lives.  I could point to this, but I won't.  Such examples aren't really important.

What IS important is how you live your life.  Politics, or rather government, is a part of that life.  Why would you NOT want to be involved?  Let me put it another way.  When you go to your grandmothers' house for Thanksgiving dinner do you not talk to anyone at the table?  When you go to a Super Bowl party, do you not root for a team or express your opinions about the various players or even the advertising?  When you are working, are you a person who never expresses their opinion about the boss or, if you are the boss, do you let somebody else do your job?  When you are with children, would you sit  by while they drank drain cleaner?  No, when you're at dinner you talk.  When you watch a game with friends you have a give and take about plays, players, ads, and food.  When at work, you gripe about the boss, perhaps offer suggestions, make decisions and if you are the boss you do your job and make decisions.  If you're watching children you make certain that they are as whole and healthy as when you arrived and you give them direction to ensure this.  This is what people do, this is life.  

To put it simply, politics is life.  Politics is letting others know what you want from government.  In this country it includes the opportunity to express your view as to which person is best suited to do that for you and I think that it IS better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

We're approaching an election that could change our country forever.  Choosing the wrong person could condemn us, our children, our grand-children, our GREAT-grand-children to lives of want and oppression we've never known.