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ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) wrote: > >>Just an opinion---I don't even believe in voting. > > >It's attitudes like that that formed the mess we are all in. Do you > >realize that if everyone voted, politicians would be kissing ours > >asses, and not the other way around like it is now? > > Nope. I oppose the entire governmental system. I am an anarchist, > and > it would be hypocritical of me to vote. I think politicians will > ALWAYS be corrupt. I don't believe people should have power to make > life and death decisions over other people. But Ram, people _do_ have power to make life and death decisions over people. Surely you want to be able to get them out of office when they abuse that power? The CDA could still win in the Supreme Court (although I am hopeful this will not happen). In that case, the net _will_ be censored, and that will directly affect you - and even me, because it will certainly change the character of what I will see on the net. If the CDA falls, the idiots in Congress and their moral right buddies may still try to concoct Son of CDA. It might even end up being the law. And that law will have been designed by whoever is still in office after November because people like you didn't bother to vote in any useful way. Look, we both know that neither of the two main party candidates for president are going to fight against the CDA, but how you vote in your local elections could make a great deal of difference to what kind of state and federal laws we have to deal with in the future. I know of cases in which local council offices were won on a single vote in some localities. And those local legislators very often go on to run for seats in Congress. Sometimes they win. And meanwhile, your Congressional representative, and your Senators, will have input into what kinds of bills come before the President for signature, and can put pressure on their colleagues and the president to keep stupid bills and clauses off the table. Your vote _can_ make a difference to how free _you_ are. I don't think not voting is a practical option. If you really want free speech, I think everyone who cares about that is going to have to get off their tails and vote for it, and let the people they vote for know why they are voting for them. Avedon Feminists Against Censorship http://www.fullfeed.com/hypatia/censor.html