2008 Woodie Awards
Power through voting: not just for your parents anymore
Issue date: 2/10/04 Section: Opinion
How many of us will actually make an informed decision in November? Better yet, how many of us will make a decision at all?
As college students, we are a unique group. The decisions we make throughout these years have the potential for lasting effects long after we graduate. From the most complicated issues (Which classes will help me graduate on time so I can pay back my millions of dollars in loans?) to the everyday task (Use up my Pace meal plan in the Caf or head over to Dante's for dinner?). While we face these kinds of problems day after day, where are our decision-making skills when thinking about the entirety of our lives in the future?
According to voting statistics, only 33% of 18 to 25 year olds vote. We account for this low voter turnout by claiming that politicians fail to listen to us. True, our age group is known as the MTV generation that is only stimulated by reality television, interactive video games, downloading free music, and oh yeah, apathy, ironically enough. But we are also the generation of computers, cellular phones, Palm Pilots. And oh yeah, we do understand the nonsense behind politics, most of us are just turned off by it.
If the past few years in politics have yet to turn our stomachs, then the news brought by George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, should turn, punch, squeeze, and move them in ways never imagined. On Friday, February 5, Tenet said that American spy agencies might have overestimated Iraq's illegal weapons capabilities. Then he defended the agencies.
Last year, White House officials told American citizens that the search in Iraq for illicit weapons was about 80% over. In Friday's speech, Tenet assured the citizens that that claim was nowhere near the truth.
"Did we clearly tell policymakers what we knew, what we didn't know, what was not clear, and identify the gaps in our knowledge?" he asked. "We are in the process of evaluating just such questions, and while others will express views on the questions sooner, we ourselves must come to our own bottom lines."
As college students, we are a unique group. The decisions we make throughout these years have the potential for lasting effects long after we graduate. From the most complicated issues (Which classes will help me graduate on time so I can pay back my millions of dollars in loans?) to the everyday task (Use up my Pace meal plan in the Caf or head over to Dante's for dinner?). While we face these kinds of problems day after day, where are our decision-making skills when thinking about the entirety of our lives in the future?
According to voting statistics, only 33% of 18 to 25 year olds vote. We account for this low voter turnout by claiming that politicians fail to listen to us. True, our age group is known as the MTV generation that is only stimulated by reality television, interactive video games, downloading free music, and oh yeah, apathy, ironically enough. But we are also the generation of computers, cellular phones, Palm Pilots. And oh yeah, we do understand the nonsense behind politics, most of us are just turned off by it.
If the past few years in politics have yet to turn our stomachs, then the news brought by George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, should turn, punch, squeeze, and move them in ways never imagined. On Friday, February 5, Tenet said that American spy agencies might have overestimated Iraq's illegal weapons capabilities. Then he defended the agencies.
Last year, White House officials told American citizens that the search in Iraq for illicit weapons was about 80% over. In Friday's speech, Tenet assured the citizens that that claim was nowhere near the truth.
"Did we clearly tell policymakers what we knew, what we didn't know, what was not clear, and identify the gaps in our knowledge?" he asked. "We are in the process of evaluating just such questions, and while others will express views on the questions sooner, we ourselves must come to our own bottom lines."