IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 212
“Staying connected…”
April 16, 2015
The other evening I happened to overhear a young person (twenties perhaps…) discussing the upcoming presidential election process. The lack of knowledge not only shocked me, but it also frightened me.
I remember how excited I was to reach the age of twenty-one so that I could vote. Today, that age has dropped to eighteen — more in line with the age at which our young people can serve their country.
Civics was taught when I was in high school over fifty years ago, but the emphasis was on the process and the importance of being informed. None of our teachers expressed any particular opinion on party or candidate. Instead, they stressed the value of the vote and how important just one vote could be. That still holds true. For, in many cases, one vote per precinct can put a candidate over the top and insure victory.
Today, the information gained with one click outstrips the amount that it took students of my generation days of intense research in libraries and newspaper archives.
One would think that, with that depth of data at your fingertips, this generation would be the best informed of any time in our history. Well, while that sounds good, it does not hold true for the majority of those in their late teens and twenties. They are more interested in movies and music than politics. Currently, staying connected needs to be on a personal level.
To be fair, politics fails to exude the high interest of the entertainment world; but that does little to address the shortfall in information so endemic in interview after interview by “on the street” reporters. Do what you can to spread the word that a vote is the most precious privilege you have. Think about it.