"I'm not ready to throw my future-and the future of this country-away"
From Kate Mewhiney
I turned 18 in January of 2001, so last year was my first chance to vote in a presidential election. This was my chance to make a difference and take part in the democratic process, and I was optimistic. Maybe it was just youthful idealism, but I really believed the 2004 election would bring about change. That not only would we get a new president, but that the youth vote, the 18-30 demographic that has for years been written off as an indifferent and uninformed group, would finally arrive at the polls and emerge as a legitimate political force.
You can imagine my disappointment with the outcome.
Now, with my college graduation fast approaching, I find myself living in a country that is going in the wrong direction. The line between church and state is being dangerously blurred, the president is pushing the country toward a government ruled by fundamentalist Christian conservatives, and the arrogant foreign policies of the administration have shattered our reputation abroad.
As a young person who is also a liberal, I find myself a double minority, a part of two groups whose voices are not being heard in today's government. Despite a significant rise in the 18-30 voter turnout in 2004, we are still dismissed as an apathetic generation. And the protests of democrats are being ignored or outright rejected in the national discourse. I'm finding it a difficult political climate in which to make my voice heard.
My mother, a liberal of the baby-boomer generation, understands what I'm going through. She was my age when Nixon was re-elected, and she sees disturbing similarities between the two presidencies. "Trust me," she said. "It's a lot harder to go through at my age."
I should have hope, she told me, and she's right. 22 years old is too young to give up on this country. Despite the outrages I see every day, I'm holding onto the youthful idealism I had before the election, because I know things will change. We just have to keep working at it.
It's not easy. It's exhausting to maintain the level of anger necessary to fight back. The frustration can be so overwhelming sometimes that it feels like maybe it would be easier to just give up. But if we become complacent, then we really have lost our voice. And I'm not ready to throw my future-and the future of this country-away.
Kate is a regular contributor to eliberal.org and is a student at the University of Maryland.
I turned 18 in January of 2001, so last year was my first chance to vote in a presidential election. This was my chance to make a difference and take part in the democratic process, and I was optimistic. Maybe it was just youthful idealism, but I really believed the 2004 election would bring about change. That not only would we get a new president, but that the youth vote, the 18-30 demographic that has for years been written off as an indifferent and uninformed group, would finally arrive at the polls and emerge as a legitimate political force.
You can imagine my disappointment with the outcome.
Now, with my college graduation fast approaching, I find myself living in a country that is going in the wrong direction. The line between church and state is being dangerously blurred, the president is pushing the country toward a government ruled by fundamentalist Christian conservatives, and the arrogant foreign policies of the administration have shattered our reputation abroad.
As a young person who is also a liberal, I find myself a double minority, a part of two groups whose voices are not being heard in today's government. Despite a significant rise in the 18-30 voter turnout in 2004, we are still dismissed as an apathetic generation. And the protests of democrats are being ignored or outright rejected in the national discourse. I'm finding it a difficult political climate in which to make my voice heard.
My mother, a liberal of the baby-boomer generation, understands what I'm going through. She was my age when Nixon was re-elected, and she sees disturbing similarities between the two presidencies. "Trust me," she said. "It's a lot harder to go through at my age."
I should have hope, she told me, and she's right. 22 years old is too young to give up on this country. Despite the outrages I see every day, I'm holding onto the youthful idealism I had before the election, because I know things will change. We just have to keep working at it.
It's not easy. It's exhausting to maintain the level of anger necessary to fight back. The frustration can be so overwhelming sometimes that it feels like maybe it would be easier to just give up. But if we become complacent, then we really have lost our voice. And I'm not ready to throw my future-and the future of this country-away.
Kate is a regular contributor to eliberal.org and is a student at the University of Maryland.
2 Comments:
We were all young idealists, Kate. If it comes from your heart you will never loose it.
Sorry, I meant LOSE it!
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