I Do. Do You?

I did something simple yet profound today and, as always, it brought tears to my eyes.

I voted.

Each time I vote, each time the machine swallows my ballot, each time the precinct official says, "Thank you for voting" my eyes fill up as I think of how privileged I am to be able to perform that simple yet important task and how wrong it is that others haven't.

I don't know whether it's the thought that millions of people on this planet aren't allowed to vote, if it's that millions of women can't, even if the men around them can, or if it's the millions who can, who have the right and responsibility to vote, who reap the benefits of a system that protects their right to excercise their opinion by voting...and yet, they just don't.

I'm not going to win "Citizen of the Year" any time soon:  I don't volunteer, I give to charity rarely, and I certainly don't follow politics closely.  But I do vote.  And I hope that if you can, you do, too.