I’m not 18 yet, so I can’t vote. But I can get become educated about what it means to vote, and why it is simply the best privilege in the world. I would love to vote in November. I have my research done and my candidate chosen. I’ve read articles, watched debates, checked caucus results. Some people reading this may have the opportunity to cast a ballot that quite literally can change the world. And in some incredibly twisted, deeply saddening turn of events some of them will reject this opportunity. The reason you need to vote is because America-the-free becomes America-the-close-enough-I-guess when many of its citizens choose not to vote. The obsession with the values of America has to extend past fireworks on the fourth of July. Being American isn’t yelling about how you’re free and therefore superior to everyone else on the globe. It isn’t being allowed to own firearms you shouldn’t, or perpetuating your racism. That isn’t what the soldiers in all of our wars have fought for. They were a legion of people silenced by systematic oppression, not people who celebrated a few days a year simply because they got off from work. The one name you select on a cold November day is the name that we will be discussing for ages. A vote is the culmination of campaigning, advertising, blood, sweat, and tears. It’s choosing between people from varied parts of the world, varied careers, and varied legacies. It’s the only way that we can be part of our government without actually joining it. I would like to wrap this up, to say it’s your personal problem if you don’t vote. But saying that would be ignorant and ignorance is what I’m trying to fight. It’s a personal problem, that becomes statewide, and then national, and then suddenly the way-less-than-100 percent of Americans who voted are controlling international relations. Please vote, because you are the voice that is able to say what needs to be said.