Within the Fresno State community lies an undeniably contagious spirit.
Many of us relish the controversy of sharing opposing ideas and beliefs, and some of us will make a living this way. We find comfort in like-mindedness and a thrill in debate.
This is the 21st century, and we take full advantage of our freedom of thought and voice ”” or at least we should.
As students are susceptible to the successes and consequences of our leaders, it is imperative that our voices are heard ”” all 20,000 of them.
Over 70 percent of attending students are 18 to 24 years old, according to the university’s demographics webpage. This means well over half of the entire campus is able to legally vote.
Nationwide, “approximately 46 million 18 to 29-year-olds are eligible to vote in 2012,” according the Young Democrats of America.
Over the next three years, that generation will account for one-third of the electorate ”” a long jump from 24 percent in 2011. The children really are the future.
The presidential election of 2008 set the bar for future voting trends because of its historical significance ”” the election of President Barak Obama.
Generally speaking, the turnout of youth voters was only 2 percent higher than in 2004 ”” not impressive.
The groundbreaking statistic from 2008 is the 58 percent of African-American youth who cast their votes, resulting in the “highest turnout rate of any youth racial group since 1972,” according to the Fair Elections Legal Network and its Campus Vote Project.
Statistics show that young adults with college experience have higher voter turnouts ”” 30 percent higher than those without a college education. They are referring to us, fellow students.
As students, we understand the importance of maintaining good habits (not to say we always practice them), and voting is habit-forming.
Just as our study habits improve over time, voter turnout can flourish for the first time in 30 years if we made it routine ”” starting this year.
For students who have participated in elections since age 18, here are some ways we can encourage young people to vote, according to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement:
Simply registering can have an effect on our attitude toward voting. Registered voters receive sample ballots and proposition books, and can learn everything they need while comfortable at home.
Registration is now offered online ”” we are running out of excuses to not vote.
Personalizing the voting process for someone is less intimidating. Instead of discussing partisan and nonpartisan or pros and cons, ask others what they are searching for in a representative.
What are their core values? Who are they looking to benefit with their vote? Sometimes, we need a fresh outlook instead of what we are exposed to in spiteful political ads and campaign tours.
In compliance with student voting laws, “college students are entitled to register and vote in the community that they regard as their principal residence,” according to the New York University School of Law.
This means that our voting residence is determined by the place in which we eat, sleep and reside. College students temporarily living in Fresno for the sake of school can vote as a Fresno citizen.
With the invention of unconventional means, we are able to educate ourselves, register to vote on the Web and pass along this vital message:
Voting can and will affect the lives of students on a local and national level.
In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves, and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”
William S. • Sep 27, 2012 at 9:57 am
In good times, the decision to vote, or not to vote, is as carefree as the winds of freedom gently blowing through the trees. For in good times, not much can go wrong, and regardless of who wins the tree leaves will still sing softly the sweet music of liberty.
But these are not the best of times, in fact, they are reminiscent of the 1930’s. The world is being stressed by great political change throughout the muslim world. Here at home, two starkly opposed ideologies with dramatically different foreign policy objectives are asking for your vote. One party seeks to carry this nation deeper into socialism and marxist ideals of human equality under a vision that erases borders and weakens capitalism. It is a system in which all become pawns to a mighty and powerful government that owes higher allegiance to global powers at the expense of it’s people under the scheme of collectivism. In this vision, America is equal in power with other nations. Under this ideal, the American government separates itself from the people, as it has in the latest example of making it clear to the world that the United States government had nothing to do with a youtube video made by an American citizen offensive to muslims (Is a government “by the people” so easily divorced from the people it represents?)
The other party seeks to retain exceptional status of the United States as the worlds predominant superpower. A status achieved after the bloodshed of WW II and won after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is a vision that empowers individuals to succeed and reap the rewards of intellectual labor in pursuit of personal fortune, not at the expense of society, but for the benefit of all. It defines nationality and respects borders under the rule of law. Under this vision America leads the world by defending legitimate democracies that seek peaceful coexistence with its neighbors. It is a vision that stands up for its citizens by promoting the values we hold dear. It cautions world governments to be tolerant of free speech without distancing itself from it. It rigorously holds murderous religious fanatics accountable for killing Americans for exercising freedom of speech.
We live in a new and volatile world where “faux-democracies” have sprung up in the Arab world. The “elected” Muslim brotherhood, now leading Egypt, has called for the arrest of a U.S. citizen for making a video offensive to Islam. A Pakistan government minister has posted a $100,000 bounty on the video maker. The “elected” Hamas in Palestine has given Israel two choices: Leave or die. The rise of anti-Israel and anti-American violent protest in over 20 islamic countries are fanning flames of hate as you read this. Islamic countries have upped their push for a global anti-muslim defamation law through the UN. In her remarks at the State Department this past week, Hillary Clinton told Moroccan leaders, that in response to this offensive video,America is “focused on promoting interfaith education and collaboration, enforcing antidiscrimination laws, protecting the rights of all people to worship as they choose, and to use some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don’t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.”
Did I read that right? Did she say peer pressure and shaming? Then why, Madam Secretary, is the Federal government investigating this filmmaker? Sounds like government harassment to me.
The future of our country and the freedoms we hold dear could very well be decided over the next four years. Apart from the single issue voter, is the world better off with a weak, apologetic America, or a strong America that stands firmly on the principles of freedom and real democracy?