Saturday, April 28, 2012

How to Get Cathryn Frear's Vote: A Young Voter Manifesto




Generation Y is a lot of things.  We are the first set of kids brought up in a truly digital age.  We are the kids brought up with bubble-gum pop and a major wave of boy/girl bands. We are the kids who worship the 90s.  We are another thing, as well: we’re adults and no longer kids.  We’re grownups now and grownups make grownup decisions, whether they like it or not.  We had a high voter turnout last election, and I say we keep that rolling this election, too.

As for me, I have a few criteria which a candidate must abide by if he or she wants my vote.  Here goes:

Pro-education


And when I say pro-education, I don’t mean they just LIKE education, I mean they fight for and protect it.  My stepmom is a fourth grade teacher and possibly the biggest complaint in our house about the educational system in America is there are too many standardized tests.  There has to be a better way.  I don’t have the solution; that’s not my job.  But I do have a vote to choose who I think will have the solution.

Military "Can we get out of places we don't belong?"



We’re at war with everyone when we should only maybe waging war with Al Qaeda and that’s it.  Iran is a real threat, yes, but if there is some more diplomatic way to solve the Iran problem, let’s do that.  Iraq was basically our generation’s Vietnam.  Obviously it wasn’t nearly as bad and no war is completely comparable to another, but they had some commonalities.  It was pointless, many of our young people died, and we spent years dragging this out instead of using our money for more important things.  Like the deficit.  Or rebuilding homes for Hurricane Katrina victims.  Or feeding the needy.  Reasons for being at war with Iraq really pale in comparison to actually worthy causes.

Civil rights

Our generation’s civil rights movement is mostly to do with gays.  This is the most important criterion.  This is the true deciding factor for me.  There are some things I will never understand.  The inability for same-sex couples to devote their lives to one another and have that recognized and protected by the government is one of them.  I believe strongly in separation of Church and State.  If certain Churches don’t want to allow marriages to be performed by their people, fine.  Forget about the Pope.  Let him twirl around in his fancy, Bejazzled dress telling you your path to salvation is crumbling before you.  Whatever.  But the government should still marry these people.  Marriage recognized by the government gives couples certain rights; almost 2000 rights which are not protected, even if the couple is civilly unionized.  I would go into the rights, but think about it this way: the phrase “what’s yours is mine” is taken pretty literally by the government.  Apply that to nearly every right American citizens have and there you have what it legally means to be married.  It’s Not only unfair and unjust to put laws such as the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman unless your state feels otherwise, it’s unconstitutional.  The federal government needs to step in and stand by the unalienable rights of all citizens.

What it comes down to and what I’m trying to say here is, vote.  Educate yourself on the issues and who stands for what and cast your ballot.  Even if you vote against what I believe, at least you let yourself be heard.  Because whoever is in office will help to decide a lot of important things.  Those things will affect you and every single American citizen.  In a big way.

Cathryn Frear
Communication Studies
Wilkes 2012


1 comment:

  1. The War in Iraq has been on the of the things that has never failed to enrage me and I'm glad it's finally over. Thanks in large part to the current President, not the former who started it based on false information and lies. (Weapons of Mass Destruction? No? Oops.)

    Also, I'd just like to point out that Obama finally found and gave the order to kill Osama bin Laden, you know, the person actually responsible for 9/11? Everyone was so quick to commend him last year but now that he's using it as a "campaign issue" he's being crucified. "How dare he point out an actual accomplishment?!" More like, how dare anyone make it less than it was. Justice for the nearly 3000 Americans killed in 2001. And closure for the rest of us.

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