How Lame Are We?

This from Andrew Sullivan's column in the London Times:

As you read this, some beleaguered Iraqi is risking her life to have a say in her future. She will have recently found out where her voting place is, and will have been warned by local hoodlums that she will be murdered for exercising her new right to vote. Her children could be targeted. Her husband could be shot. But still she ventures out.

I have to say I find that fact as remarkable as it is humbling. We sit comfortably in societies where democratic traditions have existed for centuries. We take for granted that our voices count for something in changing and shaping the country we live in. Many of us stay at home on election day out of inertia or protest.

How freaking lame are we, that we can't get off our butts and vote? The Iraqis had a higher particpation rate than our last election, and they had to risk death to go vote.

Some people in the blogosphere are suggesting that we dip our fingers in blue ink as a show of solidarity with the people of Iraq who today stood up for freedom against tyranny. Kid Various, for one, will be doing it.

The Kid is not optimistic, but he is full of hope.