After all these tragedies of the past summer, there’s something I’ve got to say. First, I need to express sadness over more examples of the violence within our country. These type of things should not be happening. No one should be worried about whether or not they will make it home that night because of their skin color, their job, their sexual orientation or where they go to school.
Which brings me to what I want to say. If you were disturbed by these events, then you need to vote this election day. That may seem callous in the wake of Orlando and Dallas and the deaths Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, but in reality it isn’t. We will not be able to stop police brutality without policy change on local, state and federal levels. Change will not come from some grandiose bill that the next or current President proposes, especially on this issue. It very may well start with local government changing the way they review incidents of police brutality, requiring their police officers to obtain more training, and changing the way police interactions work. So maybe it’s time to actually figure out what your local officials stand for and whether or not they are prepared to reform your police force. Maybe it’s time to figure out who your state and national representatives are so that they can do the same.
Remember the House Democrats sit-in a few weeks ago over “no fly, no buy” and universal background checks? Yes? Do you also remember that they didn’t actually get a vote on those two pieces of legislation because it didn’t match up with the Republican agenda? After all that talk about how they were tired of the stories involving gun violence and that they were going to do something about, nothing happened except that five police officers got shot in Dallas. And, sadly, I get it. The Democrats were not the majority, so they weren’t ever going to get the vote, and the Republicans have been doing what they believe they should do as Republicans. Because they have yet to see the consequences of sitting on their hands, since people don’t vote them out of office.
Only 13 percent of people ages 18-29 voted in the 2014 election. In 2012, a Presidential election year, that number was 19 percent which still abysmal, but slightly better. And you know what happened when that number dropped down to 13 percent in 2014? The Democrats lost the Senate. It is no secret amongst election analysts that midterm elections have notoriously bad young voter turnout because we don’t seem to care unless we’re voting for President. But the President doesn’t decide what the House can and cannot vote on. The House decides. Your local government decides what reforms they want within your city, not the President. Your state government decides a lot of legislation, as well. For example, up until last year’s Supreme Court decision, states got to decide who can and cannot get married. Everyone on the ballot in November matters. Change happens on all levels, not just in the executive branch of the federal government.
The youth vote matters, too. Millennials have officially overtaken the Baby Boomers as the largest voting block based on age and yet only a fifth of us bother voting. I know most of you care about recent events and want things to change, but to quote my favorite TV show, "The West Wing," “Decisions are decided by those who show up.” So if you don’t show up to the polls, then none of your well-meant words will change anything. Please, show up to the polls in November, keeping the events of this summer in mind, so we can actually make decisions that will change our nation.
