Muleskinner

Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: Opinion

Commentary: Chris Bennett [Click to enlarge]

You've been hearing it all your life. You're lazy, apathetic, pathetic, useless, uninvolved and lack motivation. Did I mention lazy? This is the stigma that has been attached to our generation since we were at the age where the only thing we could do was sit on our ass.

To those of you who voted "Super Tuesday," kudos to you. As everyone knows, voting is the most important thing a person can do in a democratic society. It is the most efficient way to make your opinion heard and to cause change.

Why, I remember just a few semesters ago, the whole student body got together and had a vote to see if the campus wanted to go non-smoking.

After the tallies were all counted, the underwhelming amount of votes decided that the campus should become smoke-free.

Now, look how far we've come. No more are there people smoking by doorways of buildings or are there irresponsible ones dropping their cigarette butts on the ground of our campus. Oh, wait. Now that I think about it, not much has changed on campus since the supposed smoking ban passed last spring.

There are still ash trays all around campus, a symbol of the smoker, letting them know that despite what has been stated by the campus, relief is just a puff away. I've even seen the embodiment of oxymorons on this campus-- ashtrays with no smoking signs slapped on them.

Now, I personally don't care that the school doesn't enforce the smoking ban because I think telling people they can't smoke in open air is ridiculous, but that is an argument for another unread opinion piece, lazy college student.

What I do care about is the absurdity of higher education indoctrinating students on the importance of the act of voting and then totally disregarding the conclusion the student body came to by voting.

And those "elders" above us, in the government, the "real world" and at this institution, wonder why the youth of America seem prone to voting apathy. Maybe it's because when they do come together and actually enact new rules, there is no damn support from those who we rely on to help us create this change. Just a thought.

What seems to be the real problem, though, is us, the college students. I mean, who could have predicted that we, lazy fools, would have actually gotten of our duffs and voted to make some change on campus. You can't blame the administration; they just didn't see it coming.

After all, we're the ones going to let this country go to hell in a hand basket, right?

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