So, I worked yesterday at WEIU, the TV news station here at Eastern. I was just shadowing one of the reporters, but the story she did really got me interested. It was about young adults and voting in America...if you want to read it, you can find it here.
Basically, there's been an early voting centre set up at Eastern since October 12, to make it easier for young adults to vote in the mid-term elections that are currently going on. The centre cost $20,000 to set up, and so far only fourteen young adults have voted. I couldn't believe it. There are 12,000 students on campus here, and only fourteen have so far bothered to vote for who will run their country. I think that on the whole campus, there are only 245 people that are even registered to vote - and most of those won't even bother to do so.
I know that voting is compulsory in Australia, and that not everyone likes that. But surely, in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, I thought people would care about choosing their leaders. I could not believe how much these young adults don't even care who runs their country, who makes their laws, who raises the cost of their tuition. Seriously? I'm not big on politics, but wow. It's the future of these young people that's being decided, and they don't even want to have a say. Even women and African-Americans, whose ancestors fought so hard for the privilege and right to have a say and to have a vote - they just don't care.
I remember how excited I was when I turned eighteen and could vote (because that was just so long ago...). Maybe it's just a culture of apathy here....but wow, that's dangerous. If only the ones who believe strongly enough in a cause are the ones who are voting...then how can that possibly represent the whole population as democracy?
I'll get off my soapbox now.
NO, get right back on it! I don't understand how people can NOT want to vote- with things like morals and values at stake, they're far too important that you can't trust other people to make the right decision!
ReplyDelete"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke.
ReplyDeleteThat is all.
Love Mommy
Wow, good onya girl! That's the way to take justice and truth to the world. Jesus urges us to lift morale, morals, and stand up for what is right. I am SO proud of you standing up for all that. Mushy love coming right over!!! xxx The Duck
ReplyDeleteIf all the registered voters voted, it would be 2% of the student body - amazing. I suppose that is why they get ex-actors and a president that .... (add your own bit here). Mind you here in Australia we all have to vote and we still elect a ranga woman! Cant we do better than that?
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! So there's something that should be explained about our voting and culture in general. The truth is, we as young people are very mistrustful of our politicians. I don't know if you saw the political campaigns, but there was not a single TV ad or campaign that didn't focus entirely on cutting down the other candidate. Many of these ads misquote the other candidate, twist their actions, and even go so far as to completely lie to make the other candidate look bad (See Elizabeth Dole's ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvpyU9X3VPc). None of the ads say what the candidate stands for, and even when we search for information on what they stand for, you'll find different sides of the story based on the media you're looking at ( for example, Fox is very conservative, CNN very liberal)
ReplyDeleteSo basically, many of us simply don't know WHO to vote for. We were talking about culture the other day in class and researches say that Americans have a culture that is very trustful population in general, except for people in power. I don't know if this helps explain anything, just some of my thoughts but it IS sad about the lack of voting around here.