My son's first quarter report card arrived in the mail this week. It's his first report card from public school since first grade (when we started homeschooling).
He's a high school sophomore this year and he has straight A's. Yes, I'm proud.

All the way through our homeschooling years, I've required an 80 percent or better on schoolwork. Why so harsh? Think about it, 80 percent is about as low as you can go and still function reasonably well. If my car is only operating on 75 percent of its cylinders, I'm not going to be able to demand the kind of performance from it I expect. If the doctor tells me I've only got 80 percent heart or lung function, I'm going to be concerned!

No matter how lenient the teacher or subject, a 50 or 60 percent is a big, fat, failing grade. America's eligible voters got an "F" yesterday in the mid-term elections. In fact, America gets a failing grade for voter turnout for the last 50 years, and maybe more, and that's for our presidential elections. In mid-term elections, voter participation drops as low as 30-40 percent.


What does this say about us? It says we are content with things the way they are. It says we don't mind giving our "say" to a handful of people who are willing to go to the polls. We could also surmise that it means we don't care, that we don't believe our vote counts, that we're simply too busy, that voting is too complicated, that we don't really understand the issues.

Since the government seems to enjoy making things "mandatory," perhaps it's time to make voting mandatory. Compulsory voting (as found in Australia and other nations) raises voter participation as high as 95 percent. Even if it means voters have to fill in a dot that says "I relinquish my right to vote in this election." Maybe it's time to move away from the paper and pencil method and bring voting into the 21st century with voting via texting, or on the Internet. It would be interesting to know how many people are casting votes on Dancing With the Stars every week, wouldn't it?

What do you think? Should we make voting compulsory?

Were you fascinated by echoes as a kid? To stand at the edge of a canyon and shout out your own name, and have it come back to you again and again, borne on invisible sound waves, was like performing a magic trick.

These days we can record our "voices" in word, in text, on MP3 audio, or video, and send our message around the planet in seconds. Technology hovers somewhere between the original Star Trek and The Jetsons.

But whose words are we jettisoning into the atmosphere to echo throughout eternity? Are they our own words, inspired by our Creator? Are they someone else's words, repeated and reposted or retweeted or reblogged?

Hearsay, according to the Random House Dictionary, is unverified, unofficial information gained or acquired from another and not part of one's direct knowledge. It is generally inadmissible in a court of law as evidence for guilt or innocence. It seems every time I check my e-mail, visit Facebook, or turn on the television news, I get a message or a post that's nothing but hearsay. Just echoes of other voices.


Writing classes talk about "finding your voice" - locating your unique and original style of written communication. We're all writers these days, it seems. "Copy and paste" has placed each of us in a cyber-amphitheater. As writers, reporters, parents, Christians, Americans... We have a responsibility to make sure what we release into that amphitheater is bound by truth and backed up with legitimate evidence. The Bible says "...by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." (Matthew 18:16, 2 Cor 13:1, see also 1 Tim 5:19) 


It's easy to be an echo. You merely have to pick up a sound, or an idea, that reverberates with you emotionally or mentally, and reflect it. There are a lot of echoes, but few voices. Perhaps that's because it takes courage to be a voice. Voices don't have the comfort of "safety in numbers" or the protection of group opinion and mob mentality. Voices are frequently ridiculed, abused, and rejected for the message they deliver.

So why bother? Well, you don't have to. But for myself, I know that as long as I merely "echo" whatever is around me, never generating my own response to my environment, based on the principles and beliefs of my soul, I'll be hollow, like an echo.

We're called to be a voice. 
To our families. 
To our communities. 
To our generation.
Be a voice. Not an echo.

photos: lyndsey_matthews via flickr, picasaweb.google.com/abqben,