Once or twice during our perfectly normal Thursday last week, the students of the University of Wisconsin-Madison were told about the importance of voting. This is a message that becomes rather old each election season, and I swear if one more person asks me if I’m registered to vote, I’m moving to the Himalayas and becoming a hermit. Despite the prevalence of this message, voter turnout for citizens under the age of 25 rarely exceeds 50 percent and even dipped to a dismal 20 percent in the 2010 elections.
Why? College students have stuff to do. When we’re not asleep or drunk, we’re studying. How any student can find the time to date and have a job is beyond me. I barely had time to type up this column. It’s a wonder any of us have a second to vote.
The biggest obstacle to voting, however, is apathy. A lot of people just don’t give a damn. But voting is important, and if you’ll bear with me through this analogy, I’ll tell you why.
Little kids are bastards. They color on walls, break things and engage in what can only be described as general villainy. The people who raise kids are the most forgiving and compassionate people in the world. Whenever I peed on the cat as a child, my parents weren’t okay with it, but they didn’t cast me out of the house either. Because they loved me, they tried to teach me not to do that. After several visits to the timeout corner and just as many cat scratches, I came to realize the error of my ways. I turned my life around and haven’t peed on a cat since. That was made possible by my parents giving a damn.
America is like a small child peeing on a cat. If we don’t do something, it will continue to pee on that cat. Voting is our way of saying, “No, America. Don’t do that. Don’t pee on that cat. Don’t deny loving couples the right to marry. Don’t spend so much money.” Voting is how we teach and nurture America. We shape it into the nation that it can and should be. It is our responsibility to bring about change in our country just as it is a parent’s responsibility to raise a child, and for the same reason: Because it’s ours and we love it.
We do not need to think that America is the best in order to love it. I’m not the best son in the world, but my parents love me more than whoever is, and I bet he didn’t even pee on animals as a kid. Loving someone requires accepting them for who they are, but also a willingness to see their flaws and work to better them. Who’s to say whether or not America is the greatest country on Earth? I don’t care. It’s mine and I love it. And I will fight to make it the best it can be.
That’s why it is important to vote. Because America is imperfect and it always will be, but it is our responsibility to help it achieve its full potential. As Vince Lombardi said, “We will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”
Mitch is a freshman who is undecided. Send all feedback to opinion@dailycardina.com.
