W. Alan Beckelheimer "Something To Think About ..." Published June 16, 2004

Our apathetic society has a serious problem

This week I want to address the disturbing apolitical nature of contemporary society. When one takes the time to earnestly examine voting trends in America today, the patterns are quite disturbing. Recently I looked into this issue and found this poll I am presenting for your benefit. Now I am not one to take too much stock in poll numbers, but if this is a barometer for the feelings of the majority of American college students it doesn't bode well for our future.

Most college students doubt that voting in presidential elections will make major changes in American society, according to a nationwide survey.

Only 35 percent of the students surveyed said presidential voting will create "a lot of change," compared to 47 percent who thought so in March 2001, according to the poll conducted for the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute, a public-policy think tank at the California State University, Monterey Bay.

The survey also found that only 19 percent of American college students believe that politics is "very relevant" to their lives, and 43 percent believe that politics has little or no relevance.
How could this statistic be correct? Even with issues such as the war in Iraq, the economy and this being an election year it seems that somehow students are turned off by politics.

It seems obvious then that candidates, educators and all the rest of us need to do a better job of promoting political and civic involvement if we hope to restore trust in our democracy.
In an effort to get more people involved I thought it would be a good idea to explain what exactly a vote represents in our society.

Our society is made up of millions of citizens. Each of these citizens has their own needs and desires. Once a person is born into this society, they are granted protections by our Constitution such as the freedom of religion, speech, etc. In exchange for these freedoms and protections granted to us by our government, we give up certain individual rights. Because we do live in a society and have its greater interests in mind, we, as citizens, give up our rights to things such as vigilante justice, taking whatever we want from those weaker than us, etc. In exchange for the loss of certain individual freedoms, the government extends to us collectively the right to extend our will by having the freedom to choose our elected officials and by extension decide the path that our glorious nation follows. This right that we are given is the vote and it is very valuable. Without the vote we would have absolutely no way of holding our elected officials accountable for their actions. Further proof of the value of our right to vote is found in the fact that felons in this nation are barred from voting once they are convicted of their crimes.

So when one chooses not to vote you are denying yourself one of the privileges that was and is fundamental to our society. If you don't vote because you believe that the outcome of the election won't affect your life, think again. Such thinking contributes to the problem because it allows the minority of Americans that are civically responsible enough to vote control the outcome of elections for the majority. That is not how America was meant to operate and if the trend continues in this manner, America might cease to exist as it was so wisely intended to so long ago.

America is about majority rule and minority rights. If you don't approve of the direction this country is headed, get educated on the issues and exercise your right to vote. I cannot stress this enough, when America becomes apolitical it ceases to be America.

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W. Alan Beckelheimer is a Crossville Chronicle staffwriter. His column appears each Wednesday in the Chronicle.