Ostracism

Back in Ancient Greece...

There was once a practice called ostracism. This is a practice where a prominent citizen could be banished and expelled from the city state for ten years. Often this was used to expel people who were a threat to the city-state or a threat to the democracy. It was often a preemptive act. Each year the people of Athens had the option to hold an ostracism or not. If they chose to, they would write the name of the person they wanted expelled on a potsherd and they put it in an urn. If someone received 6,000 votes, he would have ten days to leave the city-state, and he couldn't return for ten years. And, note, the people had this power. Sort of an interesting practice...

In fact, there are a few people I would like to ostracize right now: John McCain, Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, Elisabeth Hasselback, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, people who think Obama is a Muslim, people who think Obama is a terrorist, people who think Obama is a scary black guy, etc.