Dear Editor, Twenty-one million Americans younger than 30 voted on this past election day. That’s 4.7 million more than in 2000. R. Brandyn Miller needs to get over himself. Writing his letter, Britney V. Congress, at a time when more young voters came out than in recent years was untimely to say the least. Why not bitch when when we had bad numbers for the 2004 presidential election?
It seems like Miller just wanted something to complain about. The fact of the matter is a lot of young people did pay attention and did vote. I worked on election day, and I saw first-hand. His untimely criticism was a weak attempt at making himself feel more politcally aware than others his age. Don’t flatter yourself; I voted too, but you don’t see me up on a soapbox preaching like I’m better than those who chose not to. Why don’t you do something more constructive with your position on the newspaper staff? Instead of helping, you simply are discouraging those who didn’t vote and making those who did go out in record numbers feel like they didn’t make a difference. Which is asinine, because they most certainly did.
Lauren Haupt
Dear Editor,
I am so tired of hearing everything that my generation has done, is doing and will do is wrong! Despite what people like to beleive, we are not all apathetic underacheivers who sit around reading Page 6 all day. Most of us actually want to make a difference and do something positive for not only the campus community, but society as a whole. When I read a recent column by one of your editors, I was insulted. He said that no one seemed to care about the recent elections, but everyone was ready to talk about Britney Spears’ divorce. Actually, my experience was quite different. Election Night every door in my hall was open and every TV was tuned to the election results.
The following day, everyone was rejoicing that the Democrats had regained control of the House and the Senate. Not only were they merely talking about it, but they had opinions. How could so many people be so excited when “no one on the campus cares about anything important?” I have yet to hear anyone talk about Britney outside of the papers. Maybe it’s just because there are more interesting things to talk about.
But that’s all we ever hear about is how what we do isn’t good enough. It’s always “no one went to this important ceremony,” or “this fraternity messed up.” But we never hear about everything we do right. No one ever writes about when Black Men United gives out a book scholarship, or when Phi Mu goes to the Ronald McDonald House to bake cookies for underprivilaged families. So many people do great things on this campus everyday, but does anyone ever get to hear about it? No, of course not. After all, it’s much more fun to write about the bad stuff I guess. But did anyone ever think of this: maybe our generation wouldn’t be so aparthetic, wouldn’t be so lazy if we weren’t constantly being made to feel so bad about ourselves.
Kat Spear
Dear Editor,
You know what’s sad? The election results. Follow me here-because I’m not talking about Bob Casey’s win. I’m talking about the sheep. Yes, that’s you Joe Schmo. Everyone followed each other to the polls on Nov. 7 patting each other on the back and grinning like big idiots as they walked away.
Democrats have spent the past few weeks ‘Baa-ing’ about Bush and republicans in general, pulling the democratic lever out of ignorance and spite. Now I know you’re thinking “This girl’s a Republican” but that’s just not true- and that’s also not the issue. The issue is that we’re college students and while some of us are still deciding on our majors, for the most part we should be able to make an educated decision on a candidate for Senate. When 9-11 happened, plenty of Democrats tore Bush a new one for using the event as propaganda to get America upset enough to support the war. This is the same kind of political maneuver we shouldn’t just be buying into. It’s the same kind of emotional response the Democrats were looking for on Tuesday. Now’s not the time to break your arms patting yourselves on the back because as soon as they know we’re following them blindly- our shepherds will shave us clean and plan on pork chops for dinner. Think about it.
Krista Humphreville