Jennifer Aniston’s wedding

I usually try to refrain from using a condescending tone in my columns, but I’m going to take a break from that this week to talk about something that’s really been bothering me.

I recently went to a political rally in which potential candidates spoke, and as I looked around, I realized I was surrounded by middle-aged people.

A lone teenage girl sat next to me, but she did a sudoku puzzle on her phone during the entire speech.

I saw far more people in wheelchairs than people my age.

What’s wrong with this picture?

How is it that I can care so much about politics while the next person my age cares more about Jennifer Aniston’s engagement ring?

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to see Jennifer’s wedding dress, but I also know Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama’s contrasting plans for action in Libya.

I’m smart enough to know that if Lindsay Lohan gets another DUI, my day will go on unhindered.

However, the upcoming election could change things in my and your life, whether you or I agree with the politicians involved.

Yet only 51 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 voted in the last election.
Is that number appalling to anyone but me?

I’ve heard the arguments from my friends. “My vote doesn’t matter,” they say, or “I don’t know enough about politics to vote.”

To that, I say democracy does not do its job unless its citizens participate.
If everyone said their vote didn’t matter, why would the government even waste its time with an election that wastes valuable tax dollars?

I’m not telling you who to vote for. Go vote for the Green Party for all I care. Just vote.

Care about your and your children’s future.

Get off Twitter or the IU basketball rumor mills long enough to read each candidate’s take on the issues important to you.

Whether it’s student federal loans, foreign affairs, economic growth or social issues, research it for five minutes and take the time to invest in our future.

Our parents were all about the “personal is political” mantra.

Politics were a part of their generation.

They can all tell us where they were when President John F. Kennedy died, how the country united after his death and how it split again during the Vietnam War.

What can we say?

We remember being in class during 9/11, of course, but what else? The sentiment I hear from most of my friends is annoyance with our government.

Bickering, negative campaigning and a lack of bipartisan politics have all contributed to this, but I don’t understand my friends’ way of handling it.

To sit back and watch it happen won’t change the negative aspects.

Voting for candidates you hope will do their best to represent your views and needs will.

Sorry for being the annoying do-what-I-say girl, but at least I’m not pushing a clipboard in your face.

If you’ve read the last 400-and-something words, at least you care enough to reconsider your lack of caring.

Or maybe you just thought that somewhere in this article, I’d talk about Jen’s wedding details. 

Sorry I disappointed you.

Either way, I hope I made you think.

­— crshelle@indiana.edu