By Hilary McMurray is a junior sociology major
Headlines I’m not looking forward to:
* Yankees on their way to World Series
* Bush wins 2004 election
* Federal funding provides Bibles for every classroom but no instructors to teach children how to read them
* Congress passes bill expanding Patriot Act to include drug legislation; West Village turned into maximum-security prison complex
* Military raids Northeastern; bookstore shut down after “Communist Manifesto” found in sociology stacks
* Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg and Stevens mysteriously disappear; Bush blames pro-choice activists and pushes for reforms that would allow Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Falwell to fill empty chairs
* Patriots hope for another Super Bowl victory while former Abu-Gharib soldiers hope to keep Hemenway Street safe
* (Photo caption): It’s a bittersweet victory for NU senior Hilary McMurray (left of armed soldiers and tanks) as she lights her cigarette on the embers of Snell Library
OK, if the military really did burn Snell, I’d at least have the decency not to use its remains to light my cancer stick … but that’s not the point.
During the next presidential term, the majority of current Northeastern students are going to graduate and venture off into the “real world” where we are going to find ourselves knee-deep in GOP-elephant dookie. We will read the paper and realize our interests are being forsaken. Why? Because we were watching Friends reruns on Election Day 2004.
Currently, the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) is the largest group of voters. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against old people, but I want health insurance that covers the cost of diapers for my children, not my grandparents. Businessweek.com stated in the last election, less than 8 percent of voters were ages 18-24 while more than 20 percent were age 65-and-over. Quoting the online article, “it’s a small wonder that more time was spent talking about Medicare than marijuana legalization.”
I’m not a selfish person, but when I vote, I am thinking about issues that matter to me. As a young person, what matters to me in this year’s election?
Let’s see, I’ll be graduating during the next administration, and I’ll be paying back student loans until I’m in the AARP. It would be nice to have a job, and it would be even sweeter to have health insurance. Two black marks against George W.
What else? Maybe I want to read literature by the Black Panther Party (or even worse, the Koran).
Maybe I want to engage in some — let’s call it, pharmaceutical testing — on the weekends. Uh oh, I’m in jail. Can’t vote in prison, doesn’t matter what I think of George.
Let’s say I manage to keep myself out of prison but I wake up pregnant one day — the fact I might be forced into parenthood under George’s plan to end abortion should persuade everyone to vote against Bush. I doubt you’d want your kids playing with my kids because they are going to fully understand every reason why drugs should be legal.
Speaking of your kids, don’t you want them to get a decent education? If you’re not rich, kiss that dream goodbye. If you’re not Christian, convert. If you’re not white, change – Michael Jackson pulled it off. Otherwise, “No Child Left Behind” doesn’t apply to your children.
The Bush administration is like a person who just ate a pound of Ex-Lax (or dinner at Stetson East); our generation’s interests are in the toilet bowl. Shit happens.
But, the 2000 election proved one vote might actually make a difference. We as young people need to stand up for our interests and stop simply plugging our noses and looking away. Shit is gross and it smells bad — but it can be used as fertilizer. The number of young voters needs to grow; it needs fertilizer to grow.
By calling George out and voting against him in November, we can fertilize our growth so we can become full participants in our own democracy.
The eagle has long been a symbol of our democracy, our country, our freedom –
