Sometime after the 200 years of hard work and sacrifice it took to give every American the right to vote, regardless of sex, race, religion, creed and income, we forgot why we ever did it.
We, as the young adults of this country, ages 18-25, many whom are working so hard at getting a higher education, have forgotten the importance of the simple act of picking up a newspaper, catching the 5 o’clock news or even making it to the voting booth. It appears that for everything we’re learning in class, we are choosing to be ignorant about the most crucial of issues — what is going on in the world.
“Yeah, yeah,” you may be muttering to yourself. “I’ve heard this spiel before … I think it was from my political science professor.”
Well, maybe you have, but that was before today. That was before terrorists declared war on America and before we, in return, went to war with them.
Placing the blame for the apathy of many of today’s younger voters is an easy thing to do.
As one of the first American generations to go through life without a major war, you might say our lack of interest in current events is the fault of a false sense of security, or maybe it’s just boredom. As far as life-altering government action, we missed out on the big names like prohibition, civil rights and even abortion.
So are we really to blame if we don’t show up to the poll to vote for or against school vouchers?
And of course there’s the issue of the quality of candidates, that’s a popular one. People think that by not voting they are protesting against the candidates they don’t like, when really, they’re only protesting against their right to vote. As author George Jean Nathan put it, “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do vote.”
Excuses, excuses. Chances are the 55.2 percent of registered California voters who didn’t show up for the Nov. 5 election could come up with an excuse of why not, but now is not the time. Regardless of our opinion of the government and the people who comprise it, we’re not helping anyone by not caring. We are just hurting ourselves.
Sure, your typical college student might know who Colin Powell and Saddam Hussein are, but do they know the issues that involve them? We are a society infatuated by celebrities. If it doesn’t have a Hollywood plot we don’t want to read about it. Ask us to follow a story on sexual misdoings in the White House or a voting scandal in Florida, no problem. But ask us to get to know public servants who may decide whether this country engages in a potentially life-altering conflict in the Middle East and we’re at home watching “Friends.”
Yes, we all have busy schedules. We’re in college, that’s a given, but are we really too busy to get involved in the events and people impacting our lives and that of future generations?
As college students we all have aspirations — dreams about what we want to do with the rest of our lives, and often the focus we place on reaching these goals prevents us from stepping outside our own bubble.
But whether you want to be a fashion designer in Paris, a trial lawyer in Chicago or a child psychologist on the West Coast, the decisions made by our government over the next couple years will surely have an impact.
It’s time to stop the trend. It’s time to take an interest in the decisions being made almost 3,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., and show the older generations that we won’t just help sustain what they’ve accomplished, but we’ll work to make things better. It’s time to be responsible citizens.
In the day and age of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, one press of the button can change everything. The question is, if you don’t stay informed and stay involved, will you have a say when the decision to press that button is made?
November 14, 2002