As the haze of the first few days of classes wears off and the thrill of arriving back on campus fades away, look to the next two weeks for much greater excitement. Every four years our country is blessed (or cursed) with a presidential election.
Next week, the Republican National Convention will take place in Tampa, with the Democratic National Convention the following week, in Charlotte. What will take place over the next two weeks is of weighty importance.
According to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, who conducts research on civic engagement, 51.1 percent of eligible 18 to 29 year olds voted in 2008. This is the second highest voter turnout for that age bracket; second to 1974 or the year that 18-year-olds first gained the right to vote. A June 2012 poll conducted by Weber Shandwick, Powell Tate and KRC research reports incivility is causing 58 percent of Americans to tune out politics in general.
Furthermore, 82 percent believe "the media is more interested in controversy than facts." A poll released this month by NBC News/Wall Street Journal reports that 61 percent of the country believes this nation is on the wrong track.
With these polling numbers and surveys results voters will only become further disenchanted.
Our country needs the opposite. We need more people to become involved and to speak their minds, to not become discouraged.
The two national political conventions present an opportunity for all who are dissatisfied, or who distrust the media. Messages will be disseminated directly from the Democrats and the Republicans.
Although the conventions bring together a few days of what seems at time akin to a music festival, you will find valuable information while sifting through the pageantry. The two national parties will set forth their frameworks for how they envision our country should be.
There will be stark differences in each respective platform on the role of the government and of the individual. The parties' national priorities will be set in stone.
Beyond red or blue, the parties' true colors will show. None of this will matter if nobody listens.
Note the tone of speakers, candidates, ideas and messages.
Challenge statements, seek the truth, work to understand foreign concepts and check the facts. Become educated and engaged.
Seventy-four days from now, we will find ourselves with the right and the opportunity to vote. Do not let that pass.
The most important vote of our lives was not in 2008 nor was it in 2000. The past votes have been cast. History cannot be rewritten. The most important vote of our lives is the one that comes next.
- Burns is a senior from West Lafayette, Ind., majoring in political science.
Kirkpatrick is a senior from Overland Park, Kan., majoring in political science.