Thing To Do Today: vote.

The late and much lamented Douglas Adams, in his Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy trilogy (yes, I know there are more than three books, but if Douglas Adams called it a trilogy...), tells us a story about a planet where the inhabitants are ruled by lizards. 

It's a successful democratic system, and the people are quite happy to have the choice of voting for either one lizard or another.

The instant reaction of a reader of this tale is to smirk at the stupidity of these people...

...and then the more reflective of us will say hang on...

So. Is there any point in voting, when one only has lizards to vote for?

Is there any point in voting, when all one can vote for is a future that may never exist?

Yep.

It's because, whomever we're ruled by, the really important thing is that they're running scared.

Thing To Do Today: vote. Your vote today may be for anything from the ruler of your country to which channel to watch after dinner. Always worth doing.

The word vote comes from the Latin vōtum, a solemn promise (ha!) from vovēre, to vow.