"Vote. For God's sake, vote."

An Army Ranger on two-week leave from Iraq said those words to me on Metro North today. In his pocket, he had a sheath of counterfeit Iraqi money (Saddam-style money, not the new stuff.) He kept it as a momento... even peeled off a bill and handed it to the woman sitting next to me on the train.

He said to me: "Two of my friends from college have been killed."

He said to me: "I don't even have a platoon. They deployed me with no assignment."

He said to me: "Vote. For God's sake, vote."