Re: voter apathy

["Mark Miller" <mjmiller@moscow.com>]

I like my father's (Sid Miller) saying towards this issue. "If you don't
vote, don't bitch".  He also always exercised his right to vote.  Too bad a
lot of those who don't are the ones that do most of the bitching.

Mark Miller
----- Original Message -----
From: Joan Klingler <joank@moscow.com>
To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 1999 8:54 AM
Subject: voter apathy


> For those of you essaying about voter apathy, I submit the following
> that was used in a LWV newsletter a few years back (with permission
> from the publisher). By the way, I don't believe the polling place makes a
> huge difference in voting.  If it's important enough for us, we'll get
there.
> And let's face it, how difficult can it be when we live in a town the size
of
> Moscow? Excuses, excuses!
>
> Election Day is a Holiday
> by Ogden Nash
>
> People on whom I do not bother to dote
> Are people who do not bother to vote.
> Heaven forbid that they should ever be exempt
> >From contumely, obloquy and various kinds of contempt.
> Some of them like Toscanini and some like Rudy Vallee,
> But all of them take about as much interest in their right to ballot as
their
> right to ballet.
> They haven't voted since the heyday of Miss Russell (Lillian)
> And excuse themselves by saying What's the difference of one vote in
> fifty million?
> They have such refined and delicate palates
> That they can discover no one worthy of their ballots,
> And then when someone terrible gets elected!
> They say, There, that's just what I expected!
> And they go around for four years spouting discontented criticisms
> And contented witticisms,
> And then when somebody to oppose the man they oppose gets
> nominated
> They say Oh golly golly he's the kind of man I've always abominated,
> And they have discovered that if you don't take time out to go to the
> polls
> You can manage very nicely to get through thirty-six holes.
> O let us cover these clever people very conspicuously with loathing,
> For they are un-citizens in citizens' clothing.
> They attempt to justify their negligence
> On the grounds that no candidate appeals to people of their
> 'integligence,'
> But I am quite sure that if Abraham Lincoln (Rep.) ran against Thomas
> Jefferson (Dem.)
> Neither man would be appealing enough to squeeze a vote out of them.
>
> Joan Klingler
> Co-President
> League of Women Voters
> PO Box 9535
> Moscow ID 83843
> 208-882-8853
> 208-882-0727 fax
> <joank@moscow.com>
> http://community.palouse.net/lwvm/
>