I haven't had a decent night sleep in days. I've barely been able to eat, let alone enjoy a night of heavy inebriation. Why, you ask? Well, my best friend is to blame.
As I was preparing for a day of classes, she called me in a state of panic. Though I regularly hurry my friends off the phone quickly before 9 p.m. on weekdays, (I follow daytime minute rules like the Bible) I decided to fulfill my friendly duties by finding out what had my friend so worked up.
\I don't know which candidate to vote for President,"" she said.
I replied, ""What? Are you actually considering voting for Bush?""
""I don't know,"" she muttered. ""Bush is an idiot and Kerry is an idiot and the only thing anyone seems to be talking about are military records and who's snorting cocaine at their expensive homes. No one is talking about any new ideas.""
I, being the trusty so-called Democrat, was ready to pounce on the claim and contend that Kerry is right and Bush is wrong, and Kerry will save us from all that Bush has gotten incorrect. But I couldn't. I couldn't disagree that both of the candidates are mindless idiots who are relying on irrelevant discussions that amount to high school gossip in order to hide the fact that neither candidate is fit to lead a 14th-century British village, let alone the United States.
I tapped into my memory bank and visualized the 2000 Presidential debate. I remembered that at the age of 17, I felt smarter, more poised and more politically savvy than George ""Dubya."" I also remember thinking that, as dull and pompous as he was, Al Gore had nothing to worry about.
I tapped that bank further and looked to the 2004 Democratic presidential primary debates and was disappointed that, despite three years of preparation, the nine candidates presented were actually the best the Democrats could produce. Moreover, I remembered that of all of them, John Kerry struck me as being the most lifeless, most unoriginal carbon copy of a so-called Democratic candidate I had ever seen.
With all this floating through my head, the phone conversation went silent. I myself began pondering over whom I would vote for or whether I would vote at all. Over the last eight months I've heard that ""this will be the most important election of our lifetime,"" and during that time it revved me up to think that my vote would play a role in it. Now I felt mad that my life's prospects are riding on two people who I would rather not choose from.
""I agree with you,"" I finally conceded to my friend. ""I don't know what to do either.""
While I agree that this upcoming election is the most important election of our lifetime, I've reached this conclusion for a different reason. This election is the most important because it is the first one that blatantly shows the corruption of government and disenfranchisement of the American voter. We have an administration that has repeatedly lied to us and has gotten thousands killed in the process. We have a president who touts the idea of freedom, unity and liberty, but then proposes an Amendment reminiscent of the days of Jim Crowe. All this under the eyes of a Congress that has yet to sufficiently speak against it. On the other side, we have a candidate who is riding on the ""anyone but Bush"" popularity and, with his lack of ability to run an effective political campaign, I'm not sure whether he will actually be a viable alternative. What is worse is that rather than tossing both of these men aside and finding qualified candidates, the voter is forced to choose ""one or the other.""
While the idea of voting is great, the idea of actual revolutionary change is greater. That's why I can't sleep. I can't sleep because, though I understand the sort of upheaval needed to change our country, I'm horrified at how long and how much it will take for the rest of America to realize it as well.
Marques Jackson is a senior majoring in Afro-American studies and journalism.
