Why the youth won’t vote

First-time voters have been the targets of numerous campaignsaimed to get them to the ballot boxes.

“Rock the Vote” is a series of ad campaigns andinformative commercials on MTV.

Pop icon P. Diddy and actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore andeven pop diva Christina Aguilera have traveled across the countryhyping up their fans and creating awareness for the 2004presidential election.

Although we have become the main focus in deciding the 44thpresident of the United States, the issues have yet to focus on theyouth.

As young voters, we have been bombarded with radio, televisionand print propaganda to break records and make our votes count.Amidst all the reasons we have been given to vote, there are a fewreasons we may not make it to the ballot boxes on Nov. 2.

No, we will not be in class, on the side of the road with a flator have any other excuse like “the dog ate my registrationcard.” We are scared.

We have been told too many times that our vote counts,”Get out there and vote,” “Just vote forsomething.”

What if our vote really does matter? We have become moredistressed about the vote than any mid-term or final. It would beeasier to just say screw it.

What if we make the wrong choice? Neither of the two candidatesseems appealing.

What about Nader? No, that is just a waste of a vote. We areconflicted by the choice.

Bush says that Kerry is a flip-flopper and can’t make uphis mind. We don’t want a capricious senator deciding thefate of more than 294 million people for the next four years.

Kerry says Bush is a liar and we went to war on false pretensesand that he plans to draft after the Nov. 2 election. Well, we damnsure don’t want to be shipped off across the world and have amachine gun thrown in our arms. Right now it seems like any choiceis the wrong choice.

We don’t know if we should be voting for the lesser of twoevils, for the candidates our parents chose to back or simply for anew face.

Bush and Kerry have successfully waited until the last minute totalk about the issues, and this has left many of us confused.

Should we vote for Kerry because we want a change, or vote forBush because we think he should finish what he started?

Should we focus on civil issues and go with Kerry because wefeel the government should have no place in determining who can orcan’t get married, or stick with Bush because Kerrycan’t decide what he really thinks?

All of these are concerns extending beyond the youth vote, butdirectly affect our generation and many to come.

But at the top of the list of reasons some of us will remainsilent is the possibility that our vote will count and Kerry willbecome the President of the United States.

What if Kerry does turn out to be the victor and things gobad?

What if he jumps into office in the middle of a war and nothingchanges, or even gets worse? He will be blamed — no, not justhim, but the Democratic Party as a whole — for anything thatgoes sour during his administration.

This would leave Republicans and conservative Democrats in anuproar claiming that they knew all along he couldn’t cutit.

We would be destined to live under Republican leadership fordecades to come because Kerry couldn’t save the world.Democracy would go straight down the slippery-sloped drain andright into the garbage. We would have to sift for years to come, toget back to what this country is based on and that is freedom anddiversity.

Bush preaches his Christian beliefs to his supporters and theyapplaud his morality, but if we wanted to hear a sermon we could goto church.

The greatest quality of this nation is that we as individualshave the right to decide where we will worship, who we will loveand more importantly, who we will elect to maintain those fightsand freedoms.

We should make our voices heard, take a stance and representourselves. This is the one time that each and every voice can makea difference.

Only 537 votes determined the victor in the 2000 presidentialelection. This screeching fact is just one more reason to get outand vote.

This is the time to get focused, watch the debates, read thepaper and look for the issues. We should choose the candidate thatbest meets our needs. We should not fear our greatest freedom. Weshould embrace this privilege and take a stance.

This is the time for us to decide whether we will let businessowners, radicals and politicians decide the future of our countryor if we will step up and be decision makers in our futures as wellas our children’s.

We should vote because we are educated on the issues and notbecause an on-screen celebrity tells us we should care.

Jenni Beauchamp is a senior journalism major. She may becontacted at [email protected].