The news from Afghanistan should make you ashamed of yourself if you don’t vote.

Religious fanatics in Afghanistan killed 16 people last Friday after learning they had registered to vote in U.S.-backed elections.

I didn’t know any of those 16 men. The news media didn’t report their names. Rather, they reported that the Taliban claimed responsibility. They say that the attacks are aimed at prolonging the announcement of a date for free Afghan elections.

I wish those 16 men were here in America to vote.

In another account, 10 Afghan women were killed last week in the eastern city of Jalalabad when a bomb ripped through the bus they were riding. The women were election workers.

I wish all Americans understood how lucky we are to live in a country in which you can register to vote and cast your ballot without fear of being killed. Who was the last American to die for a chance to vote?

I’m thinking back to Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., men who stood tall in opposition to Jim Crow laws that prevented blacks from voting in the deep South during the early 1960s. And let’s not forgot about those who died in the Revolution and all the subsequent wars to preserve our right to vote for the candidates of our choice.

Today, we’re not dying to vote — hell, too many of us just can’t be bothered to show up on Election Day.

But it’s not too late to register to vote for the upcoming Aug. 3 primary elections. Those who wish to register for this important election have until Wednesday, July 7, to do so.

Every one of us knows someone who doesn’t vote. Some think it makes them look smart to say there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between candidates of the two parties.

Some don’t vote because they’re too busy. Some have a sick relative to tend or their car broke down.

If any of those excuses sound familiar to you then this column is aimed at you.

Go to the mirror and take a good look. Say hello to the person who is responsible for the poor quality of candidates on the ballot. Say hello to someone who doesn’t deserve to have American soldiers put their lives on the line in some foreign country to preserve your rights.

While you’re looking in the mirror, say hello to the Taliban’s greatest ally.