Wendell Berry in CJ: "Why I chose not to vote"

[BridgeTheGap]

Why I chose not to vote
By Wendell Berry
Special to The Courier-Journal - Monday, July 2, 2007

"I am well aware of the proposition that citizens ought to exercise their right to vote at every election. Even so, I did not vote in Kentucky's gubernatorial primary on May 27. I did not vote because there was nobody on the ballot whom I wished to help elect. I could not bring myself to submit again to the indignity of trying to pick the least undesirable candidate; nor did I want to contribute to the "mandate" of a new governor, who would be carried into office by corporate contributions, and whose policies I would spend the next four years regretting or opposing."

http://tinyurl.com/29djvw

[groovedaddy]

1. Former State Sen. David Karem responds to Berry in CJ

http://tinyurl.com/2lbtl6

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2. It just keeps going in the CJ

My, what feelings Berry's piece has stirred up - more from the CJ:

http://tinyurl.com/2j3l49

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3. And now LEO gets in on the conversation!

from the Louisville Eccentric Observer:
Connected Diss: Voting your Bliss by Lucinda Marshall
http://leoweekly.com/?q=node/5074

[BridgeTheGap]

4. Berry says he'll vote - AP

Berry says he'll vote after all, reluctantly
ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT ROYAL --Wendell Berry, a Kentucky poet and author, says he'll be a reluctant voter in this November's general election.

In the spring, Berry wrote in The Courier-Journal hat he was refusing to vote in the May primary for governor because he did not want to "submit again to the indignity of trying to pick the least undesirable candidate."

Berry, 73, recently the newspaper he still felt political dismay, but planned to vote for Democratic candidates Nov. 6.

"Voting is a very serious matter, and I don't like the idea that I would write something that would confirm people in a habitual disinterest in elections," Berry said.

Berry, a former University of Kentucky English professor and a prolific author, supported state Treasurer Jonathan Miller in the Democratic primary this spring. Miller withdrew from the race before the election and endorsed former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear, who is challenging Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher in the fall.

Berry said he had supported Miller, who is also state Democratic Party chairman, because of his opposition to mountaintop removal.

http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/190714.html