American voting rights for sale
Case in Point
By Elizabeth Leffall
The Collegian |
As I walked around campus last week I heard several college students talking
about the California Special Election on Tuesday and how voting was a
waste of time.
Really folks, if our right to vote was based on patriotic enthusiasm,
many college students, including me, would have lost it a long time ago.
But if this apathetic and unwilling group of students I overheard represents
the feelings of most Fresno State students, I say we build a booth and
place a sign on top reading: “American votes for sale, we weren’t
going to use them anyway.”
In talking to students from other countries who show an interest in American
politics, they would probably be the first in line to buy a vote.
Why not give them a chance? We don’t seem to take our freedom to
decide seriously.
Voting has never been a guaranteed right specifically stated in the U.S.
Constitution, but it has become a fundamental part of being an American
citizen. The Supreme Court included the right to vote when it upheld in
the 1950s that citizens have ‘basic and political rights.’
Just 200 years ago you had to be a rich, white man in order to vote. Through
the passing of the 18th Amendment in 1820 blacks received the right to
vote.
Did we forget that women in California, no matter what race, have only
been voting for 94 years?
Through the passing of the 19th
Amendment in 1920, women nationally gained the right to vote.
And although we may think our government was slow in politically recognizing
that we’re all created equal, other countries are still realizing
it.
In May of this year women in Kuwait were allowed to vote for the first
time and run for positions in parliament.
Iraqi citizens are looking forward to the first general election the country
has had since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
In December, these citizens will vote for officials who will run a democratic
government for the next four years.
The group that will hit the polls next month in Baghdad will be the remnant
left after more than 20 years of dictatorship, persecution and genocide.
They will vote so why can’t we? If you’re grateful and you
know it use your right.
Take the time to vote Nov. 8.
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