One Little Vote

In commentary threads across the blogosphere, I hear people despairing that gays and lesbians will not be able to sway zillions of voters in a single election cycle. It is frustrating, I must admit. But we would do well to keep this in mind: NOBODY ELSE CAN DO THAT, EITHER.

No, not even the mighty Karl Rove, who can spin his way through kryptonite (or, until lately, so it was supposed). Even the Religious Right -- which can hurl thunderbolts, catch bullets in its teeth and leap tall buildings with a single bound -- cannot make people vote the way they want them to all the time. They can't make a lot of people vote the way they want to ANY of the time.

Each of us has one vote. One tiny little vote? No, one whole vote. Which is more than most of the human beings who have ever lived on this earth have had. And a lot of people fought and died so that each of us could have that vote. A lot more would have died for it, had they even been given the chance.

Feeling sorry for yourself because you can't have more? Yeah, you and the entire Religious Right. Listen, if you can't even think of anything constructive to do with ONE vote, what the hell do you think you would do with more of 'em?

Someday, you will be asked to account for what you did with your one little vote. Not what anybody else did with theirs, but what you did with your own.

There are people in this country -- rich, powerful and ruthless people -- who DO think that they should be given more than one vote apiece. And right now, they are working very hard to make that happen. Where will they get all those extra votes? From people like you, who didn't think that one was enough -- so they threw theirs away.

One vote per person is a treasure well worth keeping. And if ever you doubt that, just ask some of the people who have no votes at all.