I imagine that almost everyone has at least a passing acquaintance with the Seven Deadly Sins, even if their names don’t roll easily off your tongue. For the record and to jog your memory, the Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

If you’re like me, you have known most (maybe all) of them intimately, although hopefully only occasionally.

But my point is not to confess my own transgressions or to list how the current occupant of the White House seems to embody all Seven Sins.

Instead, I hope to convince you that, in this Elections Season, an 8th Deadly Sin is the greatest and most offensive of all. Let’s call this sin ‘Indifference,’ although it is often expressed in other terms, like ‘I’m So Tired of Politics,’ ‘Pandemic Fatigue,’ ‘I’m Sitting Out The Election,’ or even the absurd ‘Trump and Biden are Two Peas in a Pod so I say “A Plague on Both Their Houses.“‘

Indifference is a Cardinal Sin because this November the future of America is at stake. And, make no mistake, we have a clear choice:

between nascent fascism and our representative democracy;

between a narcissist who cares not a whit about anyone but himself and an honest politician whose loyalty to America is unquestioned;

between an ignorant egomaniac who knew but chose not to tell us that the Corona virus was both airborne and lethal and a leader who trusts that Americans can handle any crisis;

between a science-denier who rules by whim, passion, and his need for retribution and an educated man who learns from others and trusts science;

between a man who chose an ignorant ideologue to be Secretary of Education and a man who is happily married to a distinguished teacher;

between a man who has called our military ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ and a man whose son Beau was a decorated veteran;

between a white supremacist and a decent, open-minded leader who will work for all of us, regardless of race, color, creed, age, or sexual orientation;

between greed/kleptocracy and socially-minded capitalism; and

between the end of America as we have known it and a brighter future for our children and grandchildren.

While this Bill of Particulars could easily exceed the 95 theses that Martin Luther nailed to a church door in Wittenberg in October, 1517, I hope the point is clear: Doing nothing is not an option, not this year.

Please donate to Act Blue or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Or pick the Senate and House candidates you want to support and donate to them directly. Or make phone calls to registered but inactive Democrats in swing states like Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas and more.

But please, please, please do not commit the 8th Deadly Sin of Indifference.