They truly are. Gotta hand it to them, bless their little pointed heads and all that. The Republicans are naturally pro big business, and that goes with the territory.

But when I ask the local Democrat candidates about issues, such as health care, minimum wage laws, and bringing our troops home from the Middle East-today-along with other such minor things as fair elections, their stock answer is, “We can’t do anything about those things. It’s up to you to do that.” And I am left, sitting here wondering, “Well what is there to vote for in all this?”

Now, I haven’t voted since the year 2004. Before you start slinging mud at me, let me explain how I became so disillusioned over the process. I lived up in Maine, and I worked at the poles that year, signing people in and answering questions. The morning had been fairly enjoyable, if somewhat dull. There were a few interesting people to talk with, and I felt as though I was doing something good for the community.

Along about noon, a bus drove in. I couldn’t tell where it was from, but there were a lot of people on it who’d come to vote. They were trouping out, and we counted nearly seventy of them on that bus. It looked nice and friendly, until I took a closer look at them. There were two caretakers walking them in, past us women who were supposed to be checking off the voters’ names. I asked the first old gentleman what his name was, and the woman who was with him said, “He doesn’t know.” I asked again, thinking maybe she hadn’t understood.

And she said the same thing. The fact is, all those people were so severely retarded they had no idea where they were or what they were doing. But, one at a time, the caretakers led them into the voting booth, showed them how to hold the stylus, and how to punch holes in the card. Then they were led back to the bus. Those, whose faces registered anything besides blank vacancy, looked bewildered and tired.

In all, there were more than seven bus loads of those people that day. I was not certain, but it looked to me as though some of those people had been marched into the voting booths at least two or three times. Of course the Republicans won hands down in that district of Maine.

Since then, the act of voting has appeared to be at best an empty process. It’s a fairly well known fact that votes for minority parties tend to be counted where you don’t want them to go. And, I’ve seen a lot of candidates to vote against, but I have not seen much to vote for.

My conscience keeps telling me that we need to b doing something that is stronger and more effective than voting. I never want to be among those people who sit back on there heels after election time feeling satisfied that they have done all that they could to make their part of the world a better place. So, I have spent these last few years looking around to see what I could do that would make a real difference. As it turns out, there isn’t much, unless I’m willing to put my life on the line. Perhaps this year I will vote again. But that will only be the beginning of what I do.