While I enjoy Lucinda J. Kinsinger’s columns, I must take issue with her “not voting” arguments (Nov. 6). Her worst contention is that the winner is to be accepted as “God’s will” and that “God placed him there.” No, the voters did. We do not have divine-right rulers. Jesus, though believing in the imminent end of the world, spent his short life challenging the social, cultural, religious and state forces and ideologies. No complacency, no joining the Essene community, set apart from the world. Voting requires choosing the better, not the perfect. As a white, privileged woman, I cannot worship and sing hymns while turning my back on others who struggle for health care, housing, food, equal treatment and economic viability. For our democratic system to work, we need to participate. Not voting is a form of voting, just as silence is a form of speech.

Margaret Meyer Irvin, Pinole, Calif.