Okay Americans - we have something to overcome. We have a bad reputation for being uninvolved in politics compared to people in other democracies. Only about half of the people who are voting-age have cast ballots in recent presidential elections; that rate is dramatically lower than many other nations.
When I turned 21 my father took me out to lunch, then we went to the firehouse to register to vote. He told me he expected me to be a good citizen, and his last 'order' as my caretaker was to make sure I knew how important it was to vote. My first Presidential Election involved Bobby Kennedy (until his assassination), McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey --- Nixon.
It was a very strange time - the world, it seemed to me, was in upset. My own parents thought that VietNam was "just a UN Police Action", and we were not 'allowed' to call it a war ... yet my friends were being sent over there. In high school I had the second clarinet seat in orchestra - in the first seat, was a boy who got killed on his second day in VietNam - about 8 weeks after graduation.
Showing almost exactly my age, I am proud that I was one of the people who bugged my Representatives to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. With VietNam blazing in my mind, the logic of drafted men of 17 going off, potentially to die - was unacceptable. They needed representation.
While listening to some speakers at San Jose State College I experienced tear gas that was thrown into the crowd by police who were trying to break up the crowd. Politicians and reporters were saying that the crowds were 'outside' instigators and people trying to make trouble. But, I knew that I was just a student, newly married, and working full time at an insurance company and going to college --- the people around me seemed mostly the same --- even the 'hippies' were mostly full time students, they were not outside agitators.
As baby boomers --- raised by parents who had saved the world from fascists and now our country had gone to the moon -- wee knew we could end the war, end starvation, and give the world a Coke & "teach the world to sing in perfect harmony". (Okay - we were very naive).
I am rambling on and on again -- but we did put the pressure that did end the war, we did end the draft, we did get representation for many disenfranchised peoples throughout the country and the world. Then we got comfortable, probably lazy, and we raised kids who did not feel the same need to protest and act out for change.
I accompanied my older son to register to vote on his 18Th Birthday - but apparently I got lazy or forgetful with my youngest.
Make sure everyone you know is registered to vote. Americans are not a mean or small minded people -- we can get America back from the extremists by voting for good people who really represent us.
VOTE!