The Many Voices of Voice

Here's a letter to the Baltimore Sun:

I object to the sentiment conveyed by the title of Andrew Yarrow's op-ed "Vote now or forever hold your peace" (Sept. 8).  There might be good reasons for voting; either prudence or ethics, or both, might suggest it to a citizen as a sound practice.

But because rights are not created by government – because people are indeed "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" – the non-voter retains his or her right to speak out in defense of those...