I know we have heard just about as much as we can stand about how our generation is apathetic and lazy. We hear it every time there are elections.
Many people our age feel that our vote will not make a difference. Recent local and national elections should have taught us otherwise.
Who remembers the presidential election of 2000? I certainly do. It was perhaps the closest race since the Dewey vs. Truman bout in 1948 that ended with the incumbent Harry Truman defeating then New York Gov. Thomas Dewey by a mere 4.4 percentage points. I bet the people who published that famous headline “Dewey Defeats Truman” felt pretty stupid.
Their feeling of idiocy, however, cannot possibly match the gut-wrenching dumbfoundedness experienced by thousands, perhaps millions, of people in the United States that chose not to vote in 2000. I hope they felt as stupid as I did.
I, like many people, did not vote in the 2000 election because I felt that my vote could not make a difference. But after watching the Floridians fumble around with the process for weeks only to reveal the ultimate closeness of the results, I remember a disheartening pang in the depths of my stomach as I realized I had failed to do my duty as an American.
The electoral process suffered because of the multitudes of other young Americans who did not vote.
I did not learn my lesson, though. In the 2001 Starkville city elections, I was once again complacent about my voting privileges and their impact on the city I now call home. While I sat back in my bar stool and complained about the lack of student voice in Starkville public policymaking, Lee Beck, a student, was elected as Ward 4 alderman, and MSU matriculators finally had a voice in local government.
What is astonishing is that another student came within 90 votes of beating the incumbent at-large alderman.
But I still did not believe it would make a difference in the city. The bars still closed at midnight, and there were still very few student-oriented events besides Bulldog sports. What impact could one student alderman possibly make?
Shortly thereafter the Starkville Board of Aldermen made it legal for bars to stay open until 1 a.m. on weekends. They also started cooperating with the Student Association to host events like the Bulldog Bash and the Old Main Music Festival.
Then I realized my mistake. Students really can make a difference. Just think what could have been possible if there had been two student aldermen elected.
The student body of MSU and Starkville are just like the United States in early 1941: a sleeping giant. All we have to do is wake up. If we unite and try to make a change, just imagine what we could do.
We are about 16,000 strong and make up about 40 percent of the population. We could have a dramatic impact on this city if we tried a little harder. Just look what one student alderman was able to accomplish in three years.
Now, I am not asking everyone to go out and run for mayor, but the least we could do is make our voice heard by voting in local and national elections. We have seen from the past that a few more votes really can make a difference.
The average student is a silent majority, not only on campus, but also in Starkville and the United States as a whole.
You can register to vote in the circuit clerk’s office in the Oktibbeha County Courthouse in Downtown Starkville. It is just across Washington Street from Mugshots and across Main Street from Lucky’s Lounge.
Stand up, register and vote in campus, local and national elections, and take advantage of democracy, instead of taking it for granted.
Nick Thompson is a senior communication major. He can be reached at [email protected].