So there is a time and a place for everything right? Well now is the time and the place to make your voice heard!

Get out there, say something, you know you want to. You have an opinion. But you also have an excuse.

I don’t know if I’ll still be living here come election day. So? The fact that some people use this as an excuse to not only be uninvolved but uninformed baffles me. Do you see old people saying “I don’t know if I’ll still be living come election day?” No! So get over it. Just because you move doesn’t mean that George Bush isn’t still president of the US. Just because you move one block doesn’t change your Governor. Just because you move doesn’t make the issues that are important to you, suddenly less important.

You move. So you reregister to vote, you sign up in a new precinct, you figure out who your new Senator/Representative, state and federal are. If you are really into it you go ahead and e-mail them asking them to add you to any e-mail list serves they have for constituents and the like, introducing yourself and all of that. But mostly you just keep up what you are doing. If you are heavily involved in local politics I don’t have to tell you what to do, you already know. If you aren’t at all, then moving isn’t really going to matter is it?

Being involved doesn’t have to be a process that takes up a huge amount of time. It doesn’t have to be a chore. It doesn’t have to be worse than going to the dentist. It’s all about doing what matters to you. If you feel really strongly about an issue: birth control, medical marijuana, the filibuster, abortion, gay marriage, property taxes, schools, privacy, personal responsibility, health care reform…on and on; then simply focus on that issue. There is no need for you to do everything, just do something.

A simple discussion with your neighbor about how you think that parents really need to keep their eyes on what their children watch instead of demanding that all video games be made for 8 year olds can change one mind. One changed mind can change others. 5 minutes to shoot an e-mail off to your Representative will be counted.

Participation is not something you need to make excuses about, it is simply something you need to do. It doesn’t need to take up your whole life, you don’t have to do as much of it as I do, you just need to do a little.

If it is really distasteful to you, think about your writing to your congressperson about not making peer to peer file sharing illegal as a part of what you do with music or software. Think about the phone call to your city council member about the new bike path as a part your training for the century. Act like your e-mail to your senator about protecting a woman’s right to chose and to have access to birth control as foreplay (without it you won’t get any).

Do what interests you, just make sure you can keep doing it. Whether that’s having sex, biking, playing video games, listening to music or whatever do what you do, and make sure that those options will be available in the future.

Last 5 posts by Sara Reller

• Death by war? - May 2nd, 2006
• Big Veiny Ultra-realistic Problems - March 27th, 2006
• Constitution - March 21st, 2006
• Caucuses - March 7th, 2006
• Bloggurnalist? - February 20th, 2006