If you have been reading the newspaper, watching TV, or have simply been alive and breathing lately, you’ve probably noticed that an election is coming up soon. And with elections comes the inevitable: everyone who has an opinion stuffs it down your throat.
Election season is in the air, and much like other seasons, it has become quite predictable. The Republicans accuse the Democrats of not having fully functioning brains. The Democrats accuse the Republicans of sleeping with little boys. And the Green party.well, no one really knows what the Green party does anyway. They probably just call everyone else yellow.
It seems like everyone has an opinion about everything ranging from abortion to war, homosexual marriage to gas prices, and stem cell research to the legalization of marijuana. Even Facebook has joined the trend and now you can list election issues that matter to you and even friend the candidates that you are voting for (perhaps a little too far over the edge, if you ask me). One of my personal favorite election issues is “Abolish The Airborne Snake Threat.” I think we should all raise awareness for that issue.
But even with all of these opinions about everything, what about those who have no opinion at all? What about those of us who don’t even care enough to vote, let alone argue about the issues? If you’re like most college students, you probably care more about the FIU fight or your midterms than any election. Let’s face it-most us are from out of state or at least out of this county, so why even bother? We’re not in our voting district, and we most likely don’t even know the issues.
I saw one study that showed only 22 percent of college-aged people actually vote. That means that about four out of five people on this campus could care less about the election. But as difficult as it may seem for me to care about the gambling issues in Ohio right now, it seems even more difficult for me not to care at all.
Our generation always wants to say that no one listens to us and it’s true. Seeing as how 90 percent of voters are over age 30, we are never heard because we never speak up. We want to claim “Old enough to vote, old enough to drink,” but if we don’t vote then that statement is useless. And we say we don’t know the issues, but we don’t even try. What good are we?
I’m not telling you what opinion you should have, only that you should have one. It’s not too late to simply print off an absentee ballot request form from your state’s website and send it in. There are also several helpful websites that can help you learn what’s going on back home, such as vote-smart.org or vote411.org. It’s just a click away! Is that so difficult?
And even if nothing else, please at least mail your local congressman or woman about abolishing the threat of airborne snakes. If you don’t, trouble may await you on your flight back home for winter break.
Kendra Moll is a sophomore majoring in psychology and religious studies. She is amused by political propaganda and may be reached at k.moll@umiami.edu.