2012 US Presidential Election~Vote!

To all my readers, with apologies to those outside the US:

Yes, this is a poetry blog, but right now, for me politics is taking precedence. I will not be posting any poetry till after the Tuesday, November 6th election.

Disclaimer: This post represents my personal opinions and in stating them, I wish to acknowledge that I support the rights of all human beings to hold their own personal views and consider them as serious and real as I do mine, regardless of whether we are in agreement. 

There is a lot going on in our country right now to distract us from next week's  Presidential election, yet it would be a fatal mistake to think that it won’t be the single most important factor in our country's continuing economic recovery, and in our own personal lives in many subtle and not so subtle ways. 
 
It will determine whether the New Deal safety net of Social Security is there for your children, yourselves or your parents, whether Medicare and Medicaid and the health care reforms forcing insurance companies to stop denying coverage to sick people and to insure millions of additional Americans put through by President Obama remain in effect or are destroyed.

It will affect the future of public education, immigration policy, alternative energy investments and climate change, public safety and infrastructure, personal reproductive choices of women, the ability of LGBT couples to enjoy equal opportunity under the law, and many other issues central to our identity as a country of progress, freedom and equality. It will certainly affect our relationships with other countries, especially the Middle East, and the likelihood of war with Iran. 

In addition, whoever is the next president will determine the future composition of the Supreme Court, which in turn will be a determining factor in many landmark cases which will impact us all.

My left-leaning liberal politics are no secret, but to clarify, I have always considered myself more as an Independent, believing both sides in our time to be morally corrupt, and have in many past elections voted Republican. That party's extreme swing to the far right precludes any consideration of that this year, and I will be voting Democratic in this election. 

Nonetheless, regardless of which party, if any, you support, I urge you to find out the facts behind the hype wherever possible, and to vote your conscience.  

It's very easy to say that all politicians are corrupt and a vote doesn’t matter, but that's the biggest cop-out of all time. If people engaged with issues, paid attention to who  is saying what and educated themselves,  we would have a different class of people  running for office, and  power would not be in the hands of the wealthiest among us to the detriment of the rest of us. 

So  please, exercise a right people have died to protect, and  

Go  Vote on Tuesday. 

Okay, I'm off my soapbox. Below are some informative, non-partisan links that may be helpful. Normal poetry will resume sometime after the election.

To find out information on where or how to vote in your state:

List of State Election Boards

To verify the facts in ads or claims by candidates(non-partisan):

FactCheck.org

For the latest polling averages:

Real Clear Politics (leans slightly right)

Nate Silver's 538 Blog at the NYT (leans slightly left)

For image credits, hover mouse over picture. All images are shared under a Creative Commons License.