CityCynic.com

This Veterans’ Day, let’s take a minute to show our gratitude for all of the brave men and women who have fought and are fighting for our country.

War is very much used as a talking point by politicians and talking heads these days. And while we, as Americans, do have to find a way to resolve two wars that we are currently trapped in, I’d like to put those issues aside today to offer thanks to those who offer their lives in the name of OUR freedom.

Remember those who gave their lives so that we may be free.

Let’s hope that President Obama uses today to reflect on making the correct choice in dealing with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He didn’t get us into them, but let’s hope he can find the best way of getting us out of them.

ALSO: In case you were wondering, the American war I find most interesting is the Revolutionary War. It got this country started, afterall.

Oops, I didn’t vote.

Now while millions of Americans don’t vote (especially in a non-Presidential election year), I have always voted since the first day I was legally eligible to make my voice heard.

Voting is a fundamental right.

Today I just ran out of time before work. I didn’t leave myself enough time before work to vote.

That’s the excuse, anyway. And maybe I didn’t feel like this year’s races were all that important.

Until I thought of the implications.

What if the Republican challenger had managed to win Town Supervisor this time around? After years of Republican rule in the Town and County, Democrats had finally broken through to take over the leadership and change local government for the better.

We had come together to vote out “Crookhaven” and vote in favor of a corruption-free Brookhaven.

What if my non-vote, combined with the non-votes from hundreds of other people in my area gave the Republican the seat? Its not something I would feel good about and it would likely directly effect my happiness down the road.

And all because I didn’t take 15 minutes to vote today.

It does add an extra layer of guilt to an otherwise okay day.

Luckily, with 70% of the vote in, it looks like the Democratic incumbent will hold onto his seat by a 12% or so margin.

So I can take a brief sigh of relief that my not voting today didn’t screw things up too much.

But then again, there are all the other races, some of which Democrats didn’t win. And some of those races were very close. How much of an impact did my non-vote play in that outcome?

I guess I may never know.

But what I do know is that I won’t take my civic right to make my voice heard for granted again. It just means too much to not participate in a participatory government.

And I know that if someone I didn’t agree with were to get elected because I didn’t vote, that I wouldn’t really have the right to complain, since I did nothing.

That, and I couldn’t take dealing with the day’s worth of guilt again.

RELATED: I just heard that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was elected to a third term as NYC Mayor. I guess that answers the question of what spending millions and millions of your own money in a mayoral race can get you.

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) is working hard to get healthcare reform passed… pushing through all the rhetoric and nonsense about socialized medicine that’s out there these days:

Al Franken, like many Americans, is sick and tired of listening to conservatives throw up strawman arguments about health care reform intended to scare Americans into accepting 47 million uninsured fellow citizens, increasing out-of-pocket costs and skyrocketing personal bankruptcies due to health care costs–all the while decrying “socialized” medicine. Below, he schools Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Hudson Institute–which until recently employed disgraced health care “analyst” and serial liar Betsy McCaughey–on how people in other “socialized” countries don’t go bankrupt trying to stay alive.

Now that’s refreshing to see, isn’t it? Enough with the scare tactics, let’s get healthcare reform passed!