Many score and several years ago - that’s a lot, or about 154 years - Abraham Lincoln told a crowd in 1854, “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” So what? Glad you asked!

You cannot go on the Internet today, launch your email, or turn on the television without one common and consistent thread - people are bitching! Everybody is screaming for something, and ice cream is last on the list. The biggest buzz word of the current political climate is the call for “change.” Every election year comes claims and calls for change. But what is changing?

What is changing is that the amount of bitching is out pacing the American ballot!

Everyday I get flooded with emails about change, emails about complaints, and emails about mis truths. What I never get is an email asking me if I have registered to vote. I get emails asking for money and campaign contributions. I never get an email asking me to take a friend to register to vote.

If we really want to celebrate our nation’s independence, our nation’s greatness, our nation’s democracy, all the things we cherish as Americans, and if we really want change and security, it’s time to stop the rhetoric and begin the reaction; it begins with US!

Every year on holiday’s that celebrate our nation and more specifically any holiday wherein we take on special reverence to those who serve and have served our nation, we wave flags, shoot off fireworks and maybe even attempt to sing our national anthem. However a more befitting homage would go beyond honoring the battles of war, encouraging participation in the American democracy through ballots not bullets.

If you want to honor those who have served and support our troops of today, then go register to vote tomorrow!