I voted for president for the first time 40 years ago. After hearing about Watergate for most of my high school years and trying to understand what Agnew's, then Nixon's resignations would do to the nation in 1974, I decided to vote for the new guy, former Governor Jimmy Carter, who was soft-spoken but seemed pretty knowledgeable. Gerald Ford was part of the old regime and, like the rest of the country, I wanted the country's leadership to start anew.

Fast forward to today — Again, we are choosing a new president. Clinton or Trump. Your vote is as good as mine for deciding who can lead this country for the next four years. After months of campaigning and bad-mouthing each other, Clinton and Trump have less than three weeks to garner those final votes. As for my vote — I still have a bit of homework to do before I decide. Personally, I wish Carter and Ford — or some facsimile of — were running. Like many, our choices are not like the old days.

This Election Day will also provide us with some very important local decisions: roundabout or no roundabout, Hawke or Wolf, Johnson or Dow, legalize marijuana or not, background checks for firearms or not, minimum wage increases or not, ranked choice voting or not, and others. I don't know about you, but I've been thinking a lot about the above and, maybe like some of you, there's still some homework to do before marking yes or no on the ballot.

But I do want to urge everyone to vote. It's important and we should be glad that we live in a country that still gives us that right.