I do not want to embarrass anyone by name in this distinguished paper, but there are those among us who don’t even know one member of the Supreme Court! Not only that, they do not know their state’s representatives in Congress or even the Secretary of State.
Adding insult to injury, this individual isn’t from the backwoods of Alabama or Kentucky but rather the rich bosom of Connecticut, and further, attended a local Fairfield High School. As a political science major, I almost find it abhorrent that such a man was admitted to this fine institute of higher education.
The man I will call “Titus” for purposes of this discussion is representative of a broad trend in this country of political apathy. Mid-term elections were just days ago and how many here voted in Connecticut or in other states? Poor Titus is lucky to even understand how voting works thanks to a seemingly porous civics education.
We at Fairfield in particular all benefit immensely from the political structure of this country, and yet many seem content to be free riders. We feel no need to give back in even the smallest of ways such as voting.
Voting has the power to win back the beach. If we as a community registered and voted last year as a block we would be influencing policy right now. A community of over 5,000 is sure to demand attention.
However, that community, when it comes to voting, scarcely numbers even 500. As a result, Ken Flatto feels the need to make no more than token appearances on campus.
We have strangled our political voice on local issues and thus left ourselves at the mercy of those who are out to take away our freedoms by means such as filming us as we party.
Local issues like the beach and national issues like the conflict in Iraq were at stake with each vote cast. We very well may go to war in Iraq. This may not frighten many but it certainly should. Some of us may be in the reserves and called off, or know family or friends that are.
War entails casualties and they are not all on the other side. A draft may return some day, but sadly the youth of this country will have long divorced themselves from any say in that matter. The war and the Congress are both at stake this mid-term. To be heard we must register and we must vote.
Civic apathy is like procrastination. If you procrastinate long enough you eventually find yourself with 300 pages to read and a ten-page term paper all due the next day. You pull all-nighters and face the consequences of C test grades and a mediocre paper.
By not voting, you allow scoundrels to run amuck with your power and influence the state of affairs in your life. By being apathetic you essentially give up your right to protest. If this campus could find its voice it could fight back against the imperial townies and their holier-than-thou ways, it could prove to be a real voice in state and national politics, and it could receive the rightful national media attention it deserves.
If Ken Flatto should happen to read this I would encourage him to dialogue with me via this paper on why he isn’t out driving voter-registration drives. Also, Mr. Flatto, if Tom Daschle, the Senate Majority Leader, could mail in a canned letter promoting voting, why couldn’t you send us one also?
We do vote Mr. Flatto. More of us would if individuals like yourself and Christopher Shays, the Senator up for reelection, dialogued and spoke here more often. Food for thought. I suppose you had better get back to reviewing those tapes of us drinking at the beach.
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