One morning, while drinking coffee and beginning my day’s e-mail, I listened to an NPR segment on the upcoming midterm election. Several young people of voting age were interviewed.
They were disappointed so little had changed since the 2008 election, which brought President Barack Obama and a majority of members from the Democratic party to Washington.
They then said because of their disappointment, they were no longer “into politics” and will not be voting in this upcoming election.
The position that little has changed, while arguable, is understandable. Making changes or changing course in a country as large as the United States is not easy.
And, given the number of winds and gales that have been blowing (or were blowing even prior to the last election), I find it amazing we’ve had change at all.
But rather than argue as we have (I’ll refer readers to a recent interview in Rolling Stone with Obama, in which he says he has accomplished 70 percent of his promises), I want to comment on these young voters’ decision to refrain from voting and link it to our university’s motto of “Ut Prosim.” My hopes are, at least, to generate a discussion around this issue and make potential consequences clear.
Voting is probably the single most significant act of citizenship. By voting, you choose to participate in our democratic process. You fulfill your obligation to share your thoughts and your voice. I can already hear the other side, so I’ll be clear and acknowledge that yes, not voting is an act too.
Make no mistake; by choosing to abstain, even though you are “acting,” you are not participating. You are silencing your voice, and the impact has no upside.
I have four children and a stepson. All of my children are college age or just a bit older; my stepson is 17. I know they have strong opinions, and I know I don’t agree with all of them.
Yet, when we talk, I listen carefully to what they say and weigh it, realizing their comments and perspectives are important and valuable. Occasionally I change my position based on what I hear or learn during our conversations.
If they remained silent because I didn’t change my position every time, I’d learn little and nothing would change.
By not voting, the odds are more in favor of things not changing or, perhaps, of things returning to what was the status quo.
Those who have money or influence find it easier to rally people who will support their positions and “take back” what they lost.
They take the helm and guide our ship to whatever shores promise the biggest returns. A select few truly benefit.
But will you? Your parents? Your friends and neighbors? Hard to imagine a “yes” answer given high unemployment rates and stagnant wages.
In his book on servant leadership, Robert Greenleaf explains, “If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, ... then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”
We are the “regenerative forces” Greenleaf describes, and we can counter a powerful negative force in our culture, one that actually smiles or applauds when you step aside and do not speak (or vote).
Whether or not you agree with me, I sense you believe Virginia Tech’s motto is not just about “service” in some menial or diminished way. Rather it about service that helps create a better society.
Our education relies upon inquiry and deliberative discourse — to put it simply, it relies on thinking, reflecting and sharing ideas with one another.
Such an education, as Martha Nussbaum says, “equips a citizen for genuine choice of a way of life ... and the ability to contrast alternatives.” Such a society asks each member to be a citizen of the world.
It “recognizes in people what is especially fundamental about them, most worthy of reverence and acknowledgement, namely their aspirations to justice and goodness and their capacities for reasoning.”
And how better to demonstrate your capacities for reasoning and your ability to contrast alternatives than take a position and vote?
A version of this article appeared in the Oct 14 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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"Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope.'"
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"I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain,' but where's the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote -- who did not even leave the house on Election Day -- am in no way responsible for that these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created."
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