With the midterm elections bearing down on us – it’s Nov. 4, for those of you scoring at home – it strikes us that we middle-agers might represent the more active of a declining breed: the active voter. We know plenty of twenty-somethings that couldn’t possibly be less energized about casting votes for various candidates that could be among their would-be choices. Too many times we have been asked, “Why? My vote doesn’t matter, right?” Wrong, Snapchat Breath. It matters plenty. If we all just take a closer look at the “deciding” United States municipality from the 2012 presidential election, that being Hamilton County in southwest Ohio, all those “my vote doesn’t matter” folks and their counterparts, were they of the conservative persuasion, could have made a huge difference. We’ve written here annually of the right and (what we view to be) the responsibility for everyone 18 years and older to find a way to making voting a reality. Sadly, it’s not nearly enough the case. We’d like to add privilege. Look around the world where true democracy doesn’t reign; those folks do not enjoy the freedom to vote their conscience. And so with right, responsibility and privilege in vote-eligibles’ quivers, it stuns us that there is such disinterest or lack of understanding of what casting votes truly means. Here comes the finger pointing, then: It is, in our opinion, a problem that equally roosts in schools and in the home. Many teachers and parents – from our observations in recent years – simply gloss over it. Where it “doesn’t matter” it should. No one will convince us otherwise. Whatever we can do to wake up the younger generation – all those still slumbering, as it were – will help us help them to have a brighter and more secure future. And, if they don’t vote, they shouldn’t whine about a thing. (It’s now time for us to go get fitted for our canes.)