If you are an American and you haven't already, GO VOTE TODAY!
I've heard all the arguments:
Both parties are the same.
Then vote for a third party.
Third parties can never make a difference.
Naturally if no one votes for them.
My vote won't matter.
Of course it doesn't matter any more than anyone else's vote, but that's only fair.
Politics are too corrupt.
Good people exist in politics, if you are so good then you should be involved too.
Folks, we participate in our society whether we like to or not. We are lucky to live in a time where we have the right to vote and choose our leaders on a regular basis. I'm not going to give you a dogmatic spiel about how many Americans died for your right to vote and blah blah blah. The truth should not be reduced to ideology. Every one of us has power in the world, the fact that it is a relatively small amount of power should not stop us from exercising it.
In 2000 I was in the apathetic voter camp. Bush and Gore both were so full of shit that voting seemed a waste of time. But in the age of sound bytes and two-party politics, you can't expect candidates for public office to publically take well-reasoned positions on every issue. Candidates have to spend most of their time campaigning, so getting elected is like a fencing match; each side crafts a calculated message to gain a statistical advantage.
Candidates may (by necessity) think of us as statistics, and we may think of strangers that way, but within our realm of experience we can have a profound impact. The appearance of randomness is really just a lack of detailed information. Within the scope of our individual lives we can make a big difference, and these differences extend to the people around us. Society is built from millions of individual interactions.
I suppose it's no wonder that in the land of the individual, people would not be satisfied by such a collective sense of responsibility. Normal people pale in comparison to the mass influence exhibited by today's media superstars. We start to get the feeling that if something doesn't directly and immediately benefit us then it's not worth doing. This incitement to apathy is harmful to society, because the more people turn away the more power gets consolidated in the hands of a few corrupt individuals.
If you are happy with the way things are, and you feel okay about what our government is doing around the world then feel free to stay at home today. However, if you disagree with our global actions, then it's your job to speak out. You can't sit in a bubble and pretend like you have nothing to do with it, because your tax dollars sure as hell being spent. You don't need to change the world, but you definitely need to pull your own weight.