I recently voted in my first ever official election, and what a thrill it was! I was out for the day with my father, and before I returned to our beautiful campus, I went to North Junior High School in Brockton to cast my vote. I walked through the double doors, showed the kind elderly woman who was working the front table my license, she crossed my name off the list and handed me my very own ballot. For years I had enviously watched my parents enter those curtained booths and select their preferred candidate, and now it was my turn. As I filled in the blank dot next to my preference, I got a real adrenaline rush. I left the building feeling splendidly accomplished and proud.
My question is this: why doesn’t anyone else want to feel this great? I have been talking to many people around campus, even some of those who are registered to vote, and they are actively choosing not to vote. I do understand that many in our generation view American electoral politics with great disdain, and justifiably so due to the dirty campaigning, a lack of fulfilled promises from past candidates, or even just the inconvenience of having to head back home or get an absentee ballot to vote. Despite such deterrents, we should not allow such trivial things to stop us from doing our civic duty. There are very few things in this country that present absolutely equal opportunities to all individuals despite their backgrounds. Those who are wealthy can buy more than those who are of modest means, people with the right connections can get a particular job or position through whom they know leaving all the candidates applying in the dust, but every single person in the country can vote and every vote is equal to one another.
I will not try and say that this year’s election is any more important than others have been, every Presidential election plays a role in determining the future of our great nation, that is a pretty big deal! It does not matter what your political views are, or if you have none at all. I am merely advocating that everyone capable should vote, if you don’t like either candidate write in Mickey Mouse or Paul Newman! It is more the principle of the issue that concerns me. Millions of men and women have died for our civil liberties, particularly to vote. There are individuals dying every day in various countries across the world fighting for their own right to vote, not a privilege, but a right that they have never had the pleasure of experiencing. So all those who are capable of doing so, go vote and bask in the glory that is our civil liberties as Americans, in honor of all those who died so we may have such a right, and all those who continue to fight for such rights even now.
Brendan Monahan class of 2015
Image credit: http://www.theresolve.org/blog/archives/3071028041