GO VOTE!

The day has finally come at long last.

Once every four years, Americans have the opportunity to go to the polls and elect the leader of the free world. This tradition is one of our greatest, and everyone who is eligible should participate.

And whether you would have elected America's first African-American President or the first female Vice-President, it is your right and solemn duty as an American to go and pull the lever, punch the card, or touch the screen to elect your candidate.

So today, you'll find me standing in line up on Upshur Street where I'll be voting on a host of issues. And whether it be snowing (as it was for me during the primaries) or whether I must stand in line for hours, I'll do what it takes to cast my ballot. You should too.

I'm sure this is not the first time that anyone has called an election "the most important in a generation," but I can't remember one that surpasses this one in my (relatively short) lifetime. From climate change to transportation reauthorization; from the war in Iraq to the war on poverty; from healthcare to the energy crisis; from new urbanism to the economic meltdown, America is on the brink of change. Both candidates have promised it and Americans are demanding it.

Hopefully in less than 24 hours, we'll know which direction policy is to take for the next four years.

Track Twenty-Nine is not going to take the step of endorsing any candidate. If you haven't yet made up your mind, I've posted a review of some of the issues important to this blog to help you decide, but it's not my place to tell you how to vote.

But let's not forget, on this most sacred of days for our republic, that there are still some who are not yet free to govern for themselves. Unfortunately, as one of the almost 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia, I too find myself without representation in Congress.

The work of the Founding Fathers is not yet done, and will not be until all citizens of this fair land are given equal representation under the Constitution.

But that's no excuse not to...
...GO VOTE!