DESPITE all my mom's quirks, I love that woman. She bakes me pies. She still calls me her "baby." And last week, she sent me a stack of newspaper clippings in hopes of swaying my presidential vote.
This surprised me, as she and my dad have always encouraged me to make my own decisions. But in this instance, this tough little woman is so impassioned that she'll do anything to get me to vote for her choice. She knows I haven't made up my mind yet -- in fact, she knows how much trouble I'm having trying to figure out which candidate I dislike less. And while I do appreciate her onslaught of propaganda, I'm happier that her pleas have taught me an important lesson. Who I vote for is going to be completely up to me, and the need for my vote is of utmost importance.
The day either Vice President Al Gore or Texas Gov. George W. Bush becomes president is only a little more than a month away. And if past experiences still hold true, that month quickly will pass in college time. Before most students at the University realize it, registration deadlines will be long gone and the fate of the nation will be left in someone else's hands. This doesn't have to be the case. We University students have an important responsibility to vote. We can impact the presidential race as we see fit, and can't let the age-old college student apathy prevail and leave the voting process to the old geezers out there.
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The 18-25 year old age group traditionally has had the smallest percentage of voter turnout. In a 1999 Project Vote Smart General Population and Youth Survey, only 45 percent of 18-25 year olds say that they "definitely will" vote (www.vote-smart.org). This is a full 20 percent less than all other, older voters. In a time when our generation has been called "Generation Y" because we tend to question society, it's appalling that such a low percentage of us intend to vote.
We always think that our vote doesn't matter, won't make a bit of difference, or that there aren't any issues that impact us. These reasons all are ridiculous. Our votes have had less impact because less of us have bothered to vote. And it's impossible for there to be an utter lack of issues that would affect our generation. Higher education and employment are just two of many issues that play large parts in our lives. If we don't vote then we won't get what we want out of the issues that matter most to us.
The only way to know and understand what issues are important to our age group is to stay well informed about the presidential race. The Vote Smart survey found that a meager 22 percent of 18-25 year olds pay "a lot of attention" to national issues. We all must live under a rock, because every day, national attention is given to what Bush or Gore thinks about everything from environmental policy to the cola war. If we simply read more than the comics in a newspaper, the issues at hand quickly would come to light.
Our lack of knowledge is astounding. In the same survey, the 18-25 year old group only answered correctly an average of 2.88 out of 5 simple questions such as, "What job or political office is currently held by Al Gore?" This is not the way to ensure an informed vote in November.
The survey says that 79 percent of us argue that our lack of knowledge on the issues is due to a lack of trustworthy sources of information about candidates' backgrounds and issue positions. What a shame. Maybe if 70 percent of us didn't solely rely on the often-wrong Internet for news information, then we'd gain a better trust of the media.
The first two steps are the easiest ones. After we all make sure to keep informed on the issues of the presidential race, and then decide actually to vote, the toughest step is to make our own decisions on who to vote for.
There's a lot of outside pressure out there to vote the way others want us to. Our local supermarket clerk may hound us to vote one way, and our moms may send us newspaper clippings and other propaganda begging us to sway to the other side. These people all have good intentions, because they understand the importance of the youth vote. But no one should tell us who to vote for but ourselves. If we do our own research of the candidates' stances, and then decide which issues are most important to us, then our vote will mean a great deal more to us. We'll know that we've both made a difference and done our part as U.S. citizens.
We all must vote if we want our issues dealt with. By not voting, we put the issues important to us in the hands of those who don't care as much about them. Imagine if this were switched around. If less people over 25 voted in comparison with our age group, we surely wouldn't care as much about Social Security and Medicare, and so those issues would go unnoticed. This is what will happen to our concerns if we keep up the traditional trends. Laziness and apathy will be our downfall. We must decide to vote, pick our issues, then ignore the moms out there trying to influence our decisions. Then we must vote.
And mom, please don't take offense to this column. Your "baby" wants a chocolate pie when he comes home.
(Brandon Almond is a Cavalier Daily associate editor).
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