Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Linda Watson <linda AT lindawatson.com>]

At 02:59 PM 10/9/2002 -0400, you wrote:

> On Wed, 9 Oct 2002, K. Jo Garner wrote:
>
> > But I'm still of the mind that
> > if you don't vote, you can't bitch. Sorry.
>
> No offense intended, but you can't stop me from bitching.  I don't vote
> for idiots, and I don't respect political processes that reward imaginary
> constructs (read: corporations) over real, flesh-and-blood humans.  I vote
> the only place I'll be heard: at the cash register, with my wallet.
>
> --Sil

Go ahead and bitch, Sil, but I'm not listening. And David Matusiak, if your 
"stage left" note means you don't vote either, then I'm going to join Buddy 
Guy's band instead of your bluegrass quartet. You want to talk but won't 
vote?!? You had a chance to vote for or against Jesse Helms and didn't take 
it?!?

There are options besides 1) voting for an idiot and 2) not voting. After 
the 2000 Presidential farce, I changed my registration to Libertarian and 
wrote to both the Democratic and Republican parties to explain why. It 
wasn't a perfect choice, but I tried to make the statement that I was an 
active voter who was dismayed by both parties. You can also write in the 
candidate of your choice. You can then lobby candidates by communicating 
with them after the election.

The money-to-votes mapping is only automatic if we allow it to be. With 
this glorious thing called Internet, it's impossible for a few people to 
control the news. We have access to so much information, in fact, that it 
is difficult to decide what is likely to be true and important. But I'd 
rather have that problem than to have my only source of news be Walter 
Cronkite and the News & Observer.

We've come a tremendous way towards being a civilized society in the past 
130 years, due in large part to political activists putting pressure on 
politicians and corporations. This summer I had a chance to visit Susan B. 
Anthony's house in Rochester, New York. It was thrilling to stand in the 
living room and hear the guide say: "Miss Anthony was sitting in *this* 
chair when she heard a knock on *that* door. The police had come to arrest 
her for voting." That was in 1872. In 1920, women finally won the right to 
vote. Think of the victories of the civil-rights movement, the 
workers-rights movement, the green movement, and the press for a safety net 
(welfare, unemployment insurance, social security, child-labor laws, OSHA).

Oh yes, voting with your wallet is also a good thing. But I'm not sure how 
that helps to, say, reform the medical system or stop us from going to war.

... Linda