"In Florida, which has begun early voting, elderly people have waited for as long as three hours, sometimes in the blazing sun, to cast ballots."

Thus begins a New York Times editorial entitled "The Three-Hour Poll Tax," which argues for "acceptable" waiting times to vote.

There is much that can be said about the referenced editorial. "Whining, mewling, entitlement-crazed donkey dung" is a phrase that springs readily to mind.

We might be more understanding if the Times had seen fit to discuss the plight of Floridians from Punta Gorda to the panhandle who have neither homes nor polling places left after the hurricanes. For many of them, three-hour waits could be a luxury compared to the waits to reclaim their lives. Most of them, however, are conservatives, less needy to the Times than the denizens of the politically infamous Broward County, from which the most prominent put-upon voter complaints rend forth. Go Google that good county if you really want to understand its electoral processes.

That "blazing" sun, so disturbing to the Times, is why most people moved to Florida. This week, it has "blazed" away throughout most of the state at exceptionally pleasant mid-80s temperatures, likely to be repeated next week, through Thanksgiving if we’re lucky. It’s Florida, yet to lock the gates on the way in or out.

We have, in our lives, voted in New York City, within a pigeon’s path from the Times, and we have voted in Florida. No New York newspaper with any civic responsibility should invite a head-on comparison of voting conditions.

It was not, we should remind readers, The New York Times, but the New York Daily News that exposed massive double voting by New Yorkers who also live part-time in Florida. Not so urgent that, for the newspaper of record, compared to the shameful state-sponsored abuse of having to vote in the "blazing" sun. Maybe next time.

We personally believe that voting is not hard enough. Perhaps three-hour waiting lines should be mandatory, with civics lessons bullhorned for the duration, so more of us would better understand exactly what we are voting for or against. If we’re going to go at this as thoroughly as perhaps we should, a serious discussion of individual responsibility and capital punishment for vote fraud could just as likely join the list.

Our most thoughtful reaction has nothing to do with voting per se. It has to do with a mindset.

The foundation of this country was not easy. The development of this country was not easy. Maintaining it in a hostile and competitive world will be even harder. We won’t make it another century if "acceptable" waiting times to vote join our other distorted priorities of what we are owed.