Contributing Writer
I blew it. I didn’t watch the vice presidential debates last Thursday and that is okay with me. I had so much to do and no time to waste. I had a chemistry exam coming up that I spent forever (three days) studying for and I wasn’t going to let my hard work go to waste.
There were important AOL articles that demanded so much more of my attention than the sparring of Biden and Paul. For example, there’s a monkey on the run from authorities after biting a woman. Absolutely newsworthy.
Despite this, I still feel a little guilty about not watching the debates because…well, I’m supposed to, right? After all, that’s what college is about. Protests and easy A’s and understanding what’s in a name. But no. This isn’t a replica of Hearts in Atlantis; we’re not fighting the Low Men in Yellow Coats.
This is life, and protests won’t happen here. So dear reader, you want the point of all of this? The point is we’re a lost generation. What is that we fight for? Go on, name anything significant. There is absolutely nothing that even compares to People’s Park. In fact, we’re not even doing anything now.
The other day, I witnessed something that was truly incredible. A professor asked a student if he was registered to vote. The student replied, impatiently, that not only was he not registered to vote, but he had no care to.
Why? Why would you not want to vote? And it’s not just that lone incident that has made me so cynical (nor is it age; I’m just 18 folks). It’s the fact that I hear, almost on a daily basis: “I’m not really into politics,” which just translates into “I don’t really give a damn about what affects me.”
Come on people, we’re so much better than this. It’s almost like a complete reversal of mores has taken place: protests and more importantly, the idea of standing up for what you believe in, have been replaced by the public display of the lack of political care.
I know that you don’t want to hear (err, read) someone telling you to do more but you really need to. It is perhaps as painful to do something as to be given knowledge but ultimately, the combination of the two will make this a better world.
People have been saying the world (but more importantly to the self-centered: our nation) has been going down the drain. And yet, nothing has been done by our generation to help. Sure, we’ve done benign things, which are almost too moot to mention, but they’ve hardly had an impact. And wouldn’t you know, the older generation has taken notice of this. They praise us for mundane accomplishments that people of the previous generations would have found to be their norm.
If not for yourselves, make an effort to get more involved and make a change for me. Give me something to write about. There’s only so much that I compose on an ordinary day…and everyday has been an ordinary day. We can change that.
Questions? Email Briona at bprice@fandm.edu.