Skip to main content

Perspectives | The Pursuit of a Vote

An oath I made to myself about the student government elections. I need this constant reminder to stay true to myself, and my beliefs in the democratic process. I will not tire in my pursuit of getting good people that have a passion and dedication and ability to do their work to public office. This I will pursue for the rest of my life, in whatever capacity I can. I hope you will all join me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Open letter to USAC:
I know your elections are coming up. I know I've involved myself in them intensely. I know that I'm pretty much living and breathing this for the past 2 months, and it's only going to get worse.
I know that most people, unlike me, don't really care, and vote so they can say "I already voted" on Bruinwalk during election week with a clean conscience. I also know the power of a vote- this tune for me has never changed. Voting is a sacred right, and I believe anyone anywhere anytime deserves to exercise this right to its fullest potential. That means doing research on platforms, on qualifications, on the beliefs of the candidates they choose.
So I'm making a promise, to USAC and to the few people in this school that give a rat's ass about my opinions and justifications- I will publicly justify every single one of my votes on this platform (when the time comes), and I will engage in healthy civil debate with anyone that wants to add to or contest my voting pattern. (I obviously will support some candidates more heavily than others, but none of my votes will be simply because I had to)
And this to the rest of the student body (that are my friends on Facebook + that are reading this):
I urge you to do the same; vote, and be an educated voter. It's your right, and it shouldn't be swayed by political slates and what they tell you you should believe. Civic engagement is important, and this is good practice for the other elections that you'll be asked to participate in for the rest of your life.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Perspectives | On Therapy

I am grateful to my therapist and to myself that I embarked on this journey. There is no shame in me accepting this opportunity to grow, and I will add increasing mental health service access to my long list of contributions I want to make to this world before I meet my maker.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hey ya'll! I'm going to try a new posting schedule for my blog, once a week. This is because 1. I love writing and almost never do it without being prompted and 2. my therapist tells me routines are good. Overview Speaking of therapy, let's speak. I started going to therapy when I was a Junior in college, coming off of the 2016 presidential election. Born and raised in Bangladesh, where mental health is not a topic worthy of being discussed, I was not taught to think of myself as someone who "needed" therapy. This kind of thought process stems from social conditioning, which makes us feel like if we are not capable of dea...

Reflections | It's All About Perspective

How do you define reality? Do we dictate what is real? Determine each and every component of our existence, debate, dwindle, and finally decide which parts are real and what is fantasy? Is it all real, and we just label fantasy that which we do not have the ability to cope with/comprehend? I've been having the best time at college. These past few days have been some of the most precious of my life, and I've encountered so many dynamic, energetic, curious and intelligent students, all of them equally as enthusiastic about calling this amazing University their home. Today, on the way back from a massive volunteering project, a few of us had a discussion on Literature. We talked everything from Shakespeare, to classics, to Dan Brown, all the way to The Hunger Games and Divergent. We talked about what actually makes literature one of the elements that holds society together, and the immense amount of creativity and dedication that is required to create world after world. CA...

Perspectives | Midterms, Minorities, and Myths

It's only been 2 years, since both houses of Congress and the Executive Branch began an all-out war on human rights and diversity. This is going to be a fight we're going to be fighting for a long time to come, so encouraging a narrative of defeat is absolutely detrimental to the cause. We took back a House, and at least 7 governor seats (2 more too, hopefully). That's progress, even when we don't look at the sheer diversity of the candidates that got elected. I'm going to celebrate these wins, because people like us rarely ever get to do so.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can't take my youth away. This soul of mine will never break. As long as I wake up today, You can't take my youth away. Shawn Mendes and Khalid just released their video for the song Youth, which includes messages of hope, love, and perseverance, interspersed with videos of the youth in all their spectacularly talented glory. It's linked he...