it's not what you know...
Oh a good note, saw my pop princess Tuesday night. Britney Spears puts on an incredible show, although I wouldn't take kids to it.
On a more sour and frustrating note, I went to an event at San Diego State today that featured voter registration and a viewing of an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. Voter registration and info area was dead...the radio stations giving away promotional keychains and Seabiscuit t-shirts got more traffic. I talked to one of the workers, she said that not very many students were even asking questions, and that a lot who said they were registered hadn't voted. Their two main reasons? "It doesn't matter" and "I have too much to do.
This was echoed while I was in line to see the DOI. Two kids behind me were getting interviewed. neither of them voted this week. Both said they had too much to do. The reporter interviewing them asked what, and their half-hearted responses were "uh, school and, uh, stuff" and "well, you know, i'm busy". Arrggh! It doesn't take very long. I know that some people don't want to vote because they don't know which candidate to go for, who stands for what, etc. Information is available, internet, newspapers, voter pamphlets. If you have time to watch evening TV, you have time to educate yourself.
Can you imagine if every eligible college student voted? Maybe the politicians would actually listen to their needs.
It's such a vicious circle. Youth doesn't vote, so the politicians focus on issues for older voters, so young people feel left out and unimportant, so they don't vote, etc.
This year's election is expected to be close. Every vote matters. And in the event of a hijacked election, at least you'll know you tried.
Posted by jjblue619
at 4:40 PM PST
Updated: Thursday, 4 March 2004 4:54 PM PST