The political system in America can be pretty volatile with all of the candidate slander and media bias that’s involved with it. Our nation’s current political climate could easily discourage any young voter from participating in the upcoming elections. However, your participation in city, state and national elections is essential in securing your future.
A democratic society allows its citizens to choose its leaders. Therefore, it is the personal duty of each citizen to take part in the choosing. Our leaders in executive offices and legislation have a great deal of influence in our daily lives. From affordable healthcare for young adults to the availability of federal student loans, young Americans are affected by the decisions their leaders make. This is why casting a vote in each election is imperative for young people. It’s important to become familiar with each candidate and select those who are most concerned with your well-being. In other words, do your homework and ROCK THE VOTE!
PSA: The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed a “Voter ID Bill” as of March 2012 requiring all voters to present valid identification before to casting an official vote. This is a bill that will disproportionately affect minorities.
-Mr. James
- Read more here:
http://mobile.philly.com/news/?wss=/philly/news/politics/&id=142656906
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2 comments
Rashad
April 11, 2012 at 10:18 pm (UTC 0)
While I believe it’s important to vote I also believe it is just as important to know the issues. I think as young individuals, some get caught up in the hype of voting for a candidate just because of his or her race, political party, or common interest of others. As James said the leaders in office have a strong influence on our health care, education, safety, and funding. It’s important to know not only how they perspective leaders feel about these issues but what they will do and how they will put his or her plan to good work. I believe just voting for someone because your friends and family vote for them are just as blatant as not voting at all because you’re not putting reason behind your vote. Voting is a way of standing for what you believe in and being a U.S. citizen one should be proud that we are in democracy where that is even possible cared to other countries. Be smart and be knowledge as to whom and why you are voting when your time comes to make your selection.
- Mr. Rashad
Jeffrey Jones
April 13, 2012 at 2:30 pm (UTC 0)
There’s an old expression “if you don’t vote you don’t count.” This can be ever so true today. This is true because with every vote that we cast we’re counting towards making things better. Counting on change from the status quo to equality. We are counting towards our voices being heard. And I know that many people are frustrated and think that nothing will get done even after we vote but the true is nothing for sure will happen if we don’t. There’s also a saying, “If you’re not part of the solution, you may very will be part of the problem.” So if we start getting out there and voting we’re sound our voice and demanding a change. We are showing that we are taking part in the solution to end all the problems that are out there. We are showing that the phrase in the Constitution “We the people in order to form a more perfect union…” is coming true, because we the people, when we cast our vote, we’re coming together to form a more perfect union. Perfect not necessarily meaning mistake free but perfect meaning when we vote we’re wanted something better then we have before. Also it is our right to vote that many of our great African-Americans leaders fought and died for. It is our right to vote to demand change in politics and society. It does us no good to complain about a law or a politician if we remain silent and ignorant at the polls. And don’t get me wrong this isn’t a tribal thing whereas we vote for those who are of our same ethnic background. No, this is a intellectual thing whereas we vote in the best person for the job and we vote out the worst person, regardless of their race, lifestyle or gender.
Voting has so much power yet many don’t realize it. And for that matter many politician know this. Yes, they want the African-American vote and they’ll promise all the chicken we can eat to get it. But if all you want is chicken then we’re missing the point and diluting our power (that chicken part was just a metaphor). So let’s look at the real issues at handle so that if anyone wants our vote they will have to earn it with substances and actions to follow. And if no actions are follow after they are voted in then we’ll vote them out too. Now let me say that we can not cavalierly use this power for our selfish needs. We have to give some people time to work their plan and sometimes that means voting someone in for a second term to finish what they started (because we all know that it’s a lot of work cleaning up someone else problems). So we need to give some leeway in that regard. We also have to look at the bigger picture and the greater good of our other fellow citizens. So the key thing about voting is that we have to seek balance towards the greater good and shifting away from the greater evil (so to speak).
Now as for the Voter ID Bill I could talk for days about the wicked nefarious agenda behind this Bill but I don’t want to digest but I will say that the Voter ID Bill is a blatant attempt to racial profile votes and control a certain demographic minority at the poles.
So as Chuck D once said, “We have to fight the powers that be…” and with our votes we have the strength to fight those powers…AND WIN!!!