Yesterday was National Voter Registration Day, not like I must tell you. I am sure your social media apps were covered with messages reminding you to vote. Celebrities championing the message, doing what they can to get people registered to vote.

The message is a good one. The next message will be to. Get out and vote! Make your voice heard! And so on. They are great messages. Voting is one of the key things that make our country great.

The issue I have is those messages are only part of the message that should be pushed on every single American citizen. The missing part of the message is education. Why don’t I see and hear celebrities blasting the message, “educate yourself, the election is almost here”. What about a call for people to do some deep thinking? Shouldn’t people know what issues they care about the most and where candidates stand on those issues? Is it ok to simply vote on party lines – ever?

I am all for registering as many as possible to vote. I am all for all registered voters getting to the polls.

I am completely against pushing those two messages though without another message that focuses solely on education. It’s not clear to me that people that don’t know the candidates and don’t know the policies and ideas that define them should vote at all.

The troubling part of all of this is it takes more work than ever to truly know what the candidates stand for and even then, the winds could change. We have a responsibility to do our best to understand the men and women we put in office.

We must not forget these individuals are no better and no smarter than anyone else. They are there to do one job, serve the people and they must be held accountability to that. Oh, and those celebrities. They are just people too. No better and no smarter than anyone else. And they come with their own biases and agendas. Think for yourself. Be accountable to yourself!