Recently in Chicago, I took part in one of the last primaries in the country. I did not plan on voting since I was going to vote for John Kerry and his candidacy was already in the bag, but as the polls neared closing I became racked with guilt and ran out at the last minute to cast my vote.
Voting is a privilege that many Americans take for granted. As a politically active college student I have been called clich??, and typical for being so outspoken, but as the saying goes: \If you're not liberal in your twenties, you don't have a heart; if you're not conservative in your fifties, you don't have a brain."" I can only hope that I will disprove the second half of the saying, but the reality is that for my generation, I am neither typical nor clich??. We are one of the laziest bunches of young adults this country has seen.
As college students we should be challenging the establishment, fighting ""the man"" and asserting new ideas, which we are learning in the classroom, with idealistic dreams of changing the world. Instead, the weak dialogue among students is degrading our First Amendment rights and an embarrassment compared to the activity in other countries.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 32.3 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 voted in the 2000 elections, but 79.9 percent of Americans ages 75 and older voted. Do you really want grandma and grandpa determining the future of the country? It is hard to understand these statistics when our generation has the most at risk in the hands of the current administration. We are the ones who will inherit this country, whatever state it is in.
If you watch MTV, you know the 2000 presidential election was decided by 500,000 votes nationwide, in which only 18 million people between the ages of 18 to 30 voted. MTV knows its influence over young America, influence enough to possibly swing an election. Thus in the same spirit as the 1992 ""Rock the Vote"" campaign, during which Clinton took out Bush Sr. (and the same cronies who are in the White House now), MTV is waging the ""Choose or Loose"" campaign to bring 20 million young Americans to the polls, inevitably with the goal to vote out Bush II, The Empire Strikes Back.
It is sad to say Music Television and its token liberal celebrities have the influence of the Pied Piper to bring young Americans to the polls. But the reality is that young America spends more time watching MTV than CNN, and it is more likely that we will be influenced by a half-dressed Madonna cloaked in the American flag than by death tolls. ??
Unless it is the cool thing to do, we are just not voting, even though it is a fundamental part of the system that gives us the freedom to see a half-naked Madonna at all. Voting is not all fun and games. Whether it is trendy to vote or not, it is your responsibility, particularly as an American. Whoever we elect into office has immense power as the leader of the most influential country in the world. In the 2000 elections those of us who protested the two-party system, which offered up such similarly conservative candidates as Gore and Bush, either did not vote or voted for Ralph Nader to bring another voice to the table. But we did not think that so few young Americans would vote that Bush would actually end up as our president. ??
The reality is that those of us who thought there was little difference between Gore and Bush did not expect an attack on America. Otherwise we could have guessed that Gore and Bush were two totally different animals and their reactions to national crisis would be vastly different.
America did vote Bush into office, but whatever his administration's original motivations were in waging war against Iraq, the final goal for most Americans remains ""Iraqi Freedom."" The people in Iraq are suffering immensely for the freedom we are promising them, along with many American families who have sacrificed their loved ones to the cause. If we value the right to vote so much that we would put so many people through so much pain, it is unthinkable that we would not take our own freedoms seriously.
It is not difficult to vote. It does not take more than a few minutes. If you do not think you know enough about the candidates, it is easy to get an idea to make a decision in one day if need be (although I do not suggest it). Whatever the candidates say, their records speak for themselves. Go to Web sites such as www.vote-smart.com and any newspaper to compare their voting records with their stances on issues during the debates. Not to sound preachy but if you fail to vote you fail as an American. Emphasis: Voting is not only a privilege. It is a responsibility, not only to yourself or to America, but to the world.
Alexandra Gekas is a senior majoring in English literature. Send all responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
