LETTERS: Vote like your fate depends on it

The last four years have served to destroy a fundamental myth about the United States drilled into Americans from elementary school onward: our belief in the strength and resilience our institutions.

That historically only half of eligible voters have bothered to cast a ballot in presidential election years indicates the extent to which most of us have bought into that.

My favorite high school government teacher used to say that our system was such that you could put an orangutan in the White House for a year and the country wouldn't miss a beat. I never thought I'd see that theory tested in my lifetime, but here we are.

As it turns out, just like a garden, a nation left untended, neglected and which is taken for granted quickly falls into disarray, produces nothing of value, and chokes to death anything of beauty and worth.

Vote as if the fate of the country rides on your ballot in 2020.

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