More elections in Af…

More elections in Afghanistan today.

Afghans chose a legislature for the first time in decades on Sunday, embracing their newly recovered democratic rights and braving threats of Taliban attacks to cast votes in schools, tents and mosques.

Reports of violence came in from around Afghanistan as it sought to claw its way back from more than a quarter-century of conflict, but there were no immediate signs of a spectacular attack that officials had feared from Taliban militants who had vowed to disrupt the vote.

Bravo for a courageous Afghan people. I remember a situation like this years ago where people were going to the polls in a country for the first time (don’t recall the country), and there was a good political cartoon in the paper that day. The first panel was labelled “What keeps <citizens of the country I forgot> away from the polls”. The picture was of turned over cars and burning tires. The second panel was labelled “What keeps Americans away from the polls”. The picture was of a guy holding his hand out the door with a single drop of rain falling on it.

Recent presidential elections have changed the turnout issue a bit in the United States, but you have to really give loads of credit to people who brave a whole lot more than weather to vote. Compare that to people who say that US voters are “disenfranchised” when they have to stand in the rain, and you see how we’re being put to shame on this topic.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!