No excuse for not registering to vote

If our nation's founders and veterans of the American Revolution were able to come back for one day to see how the nation they made is faring, they would generally be pleased.

The democracy they put together through courage, vision and strength of will and of arms has thrived.

Life is for the most part good, liberty has been sustained, and people are free to pursue what makes them happy. Just as they'd hoped it would all turn out.

But the nation's creators also would have reason to be disappointed. The representative government they strongly valued has been abused by too many corrupt elected officials. Government has become increasingly more secretive even as it has made it more difficult for a free press to keep democracy in the light. There are emerging threats to our civil liberties.

When government fails its people in its mission to serve, it is too often unwilling to be accountable.

But what perhaps would bother them the most is our failure to take full advantage of our power to make government listen to us, serve us, respect our rights, through the power of the vote.

We cheer when voter turnout hits 50 percent. Our Founding Fathers would surely be annoyed with the half that stayed home on Election Day.

If respect for the history behind the right to cast a ballot isn't enough to get voters out in record numbers in the election this November, we do have a presidential campaign unlike any we have seen before.

Our economy hasn't been in this much trouble since the Great Depression.

Government that lacked oversight to keep things from falling apart financially now shows it also lacks a vision that we can trust will get us out of this mess.

Officials in state government aren't getting anything done, either, as they continue political battles within and between parties.

But Illinois still is managing to keep the federal corruption busters busy.

Many of us are still trying to recover from the shock of the recent floods that filled up family rooms with water, turning couches into canoes, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Are you satisfied with what government did to try to prevent this flood, and how it responded afterward?

This year, more than any other time in a long time, there is no excuse for not taking the time to vote. Not with this particular presidential election. Not with so much going on that brings us sleepless nights and nervous days.

Voter registration for the November general election ends on Tuesday. If you haven't signed up to vote, do so. And then follow through on Nov. 4 in the general election.

Or, if you choose, take advantage of early voting that begins on Oct. 13. The only vote that is wasted is the one that is not cast.