COLUMN: Students are the future, should vote to change it
What a beautiful and amazing time of year this is. So much is happening on campus and in the world surrounding us can be mind-boggling. We are two weeks away from what is, in my opinion, the most important presidential election in the history of our relatively short lives (some of us are older than others).
The world is changing and we, as Americans, are given the charge of choosing a leader to pilot us into the unsettling storm of the future. I won’t talk today about whom I think we should elect. I want to focus on another aspect, which is almost as important as whom we elect, the fact that we should have a say in who gets elected.
Students are too apathetic! I understand that we are young, vibrant and full of vim and vinegar. The world is our oyster, right! With Friday night just around the corner the last thing on most of our minds is our civic responsibility. This is where the paradox lies. We are the future, not those who have gone before. We are the world of tomorrow so why are we so irresponsible today? I have always lived by the credo ‘why do today what can be put off until tomorrow’ but there are some things too important to put off until tomorrow. We, as students, have the potential to be as politically powerful as any other demographic. Yet the local, state and federal government walks us on. Why? Because we don’t vote!
There are about a thousand laws (maybe a small exaggeration) in Logan that are directed at either milking students for as much money as possible or trying to keep them from living where they want. How about parking tickets, residential parking permits, booting, zoning laws and ridiculously low wages just to name a few. We should want and demand more out of this period in our lives. Now is the time to stand up and enact change! I promise the local, state and national politicians are terrified of us. Students are a sleeping giant just waiting to stir. We are much more than just temporary residents in this community. Students are a very large percentage of the work force and economy in this valley and state.
Yet, the state continues to cut funding to our schools, which leads to the students fitting the left over bill (a.ka.. 43 percent tuition increase over the next three years). You can’t blame our schools administration for seeking solutions to the state’s failures. Regrettably, we are directly responsible for our woes. We can choose our actions but not the consequences. We have not made our voices heard in the past and politicians just don’t respect us as constituents. I commend those students who have blazed the trail before us. Unfortunately, their numbers were too few. We can’t let their work be for not.
The future is now and we hold the power to change it. The only way for democracy to function, as it was intended to, is with balance. Due to the nature of politics in America the only people who command their share of the balancing scale are those who vote. We are legitimate, hardworking, taxpaying citizens and it is time we were treated as such. As our beloved Executive Vice-President Tagg Archibald likes to say, “Bad leaders are elected by good citizens who don’t vote”!
Brandon Halford is the ASUSU Hummanities, Arts and Social Sciences senator. Comments can be sent to broha@cc.usu.edu.