Each day our choices define us. They tell us and others who we are, what we’re about and, in some ways, how we wound up that day. Every morning, each of us can choose to get out of bed wearing a smile or wearing a frown. It’s all up to the individual and the choices he or she makes.

We say this because today is a great time to discuss the importance of making choices — it is an election day. Sadly voting is something that many people in this community seem to look at as a chore. And that’s a shame.

Have many of us forgotten how important exercising our right to vote is?

Nearly 400 years ago a tiny group of Pilgrims from Great Britain landed at Plymouth, Mass., looking for a new way of life. Those early settlers were yearning for the simple chance to choose the way they wanted to live.

And since that time, hundreds of thousands of Americans — from all walks of life and in all shapes and colors — have fought to defend that right to choose. Unfortunately many of those soldiers were forced to pay the ultimate price for the freedoms we often take for granted. But God bless them for doing it.

We believe each of us owes those people the simple courtesy of showing them — wherever their spirits are now — that what they fought and died for was not in vain.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. throughout the City of Natchez today to select the Democratic candidates for both the mayor’s office and the city clerk’s office. Even if you didn’t vote in the initial primary or if you normally vote Republican, it doesn’t matter. You can still exercise your right to vote today — so long as you’re registered.

In the first primary, voter turnout was low. And the only person who can change that today is you. Vote for whomever you’d like, but please, just spend the few minutes it takes to preserve this precious right.