Guest Column: Political activism starts now
May 6, 2008
In my five and a half years at MU, I’ve been involved in two presidential primaries, a presidential election, a U.S. Senate race, a City Council election and numerous other issue campaigns. This is part of the reason I’ve spent so long finishing my undergraduate degree, but it’s a price I was willing to pay because I felt it was important. I’m asking you to make a smaller, yet significant, sacrifice.
I originally got involved because Howard Dean asked me. His presidential campaign encouraged supporters to go from political consumers to political producers. People might forget now, but Dean’s message wasn’t just about opposing the war in Iraq and providing a strong contrast to George Bush. It was about taking a stake in the future of your country. If you aren’t willing to do something to fix things, who will?
The massive onslaught of news articles about this year’s “youth vote” should be good evidence to show just how important the rest of the country considers us. It all starts with voting, but as Howard Dean also said, “Voting isn’t enough.”
Missouri’s statewide races are often decided by a ridiculously small margin, with the most recent example being the roughly 1 percent margin of victory for Barack Obama in the February 5 presidential primary. If enough students voted and worked for campaigns, they could make an enormous difference. Some already have - hundreds at Columbia’s three college campuses volunteered to help elect Claire McCaskill in 2006, and surely many more will be active for Barack Obama this year.
Think about the impact we can have elsewhere. State and local candidates make a lot of decisions that affect everyday life, but they also comprise the pool from which leaders of our state and country are chosen. If not elected governor of Texas, George Bush would never have become president. Attorneys general of this state frequently become senators and governors, and undoubtedly, some of our graduating seniors will later hold elected office themselves.
We’re here at college for the education, but it would be a mistake to weigh that so heavily that you miss opportunities happening right in front of you. Our chance to change this country for the better isn’t a goal for the future. It starts today. To use this year’s campaign buzzwords, it isn’t enough to “hope for change.” You have to act. If you do, one day MU could be known not just for its journalism, but also for its activism.
Glenn Rehn, Senior, sociology
Field Director, Judy Baker for Congress
glennrehn@gmail.com
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