Politics and the Youth

Yesterday was Midterm Elections and, being a journalism student, I'm pretty much forced to care by my professors. I can't tell you how many projects I was assigned relating to the elections. As journalists, we have to know and, more importantly, care about what is going on in the world around us. Even though my niche is magazine journalism, I've written for news publications as well. People look to journalists for information and clarity. But are some people not looking enough?

When I was younger, I never pictured myself taking an interest in politics or news. It seemed as though all adults were obsessed with the news and I figured it was something that would come with being an adult. But the older I got, the more I feared I would never care. That I'd be the oddball adult who didn't watch the news and keep up with the latest.

Then I switched my major to journalism. It was a completely different atmosphere than business. I was not learning about how to make a buck. I was learning about the world. My world. And I was understanding it in a way I never had before. I still don't watch the news as regularly as I should because I find that personally it drains me emotionally, but I make sure to keep up with what's going on.

I did not vote in the midterm elections because I am not an official U.S. citizen and therefore my vote means nothing to this country, but I live here so even though I was completely absorbed in my crazy busy life, I still found myself invested when the results were being streamed. Sure, I was forced to watch it by my professors, but I actually cared.

Especially when the Republicans began dominating. Now I'm a liberal and it's obvious, and I've never been able to comprehend black conservatives anyway. Like A. Leon Higginbotham said to Justice Clarence Thomas in his Open Letter, "What is it that you are trying to conserve?" Or something along those lines.

While I was immersed in the results, I logged onto Facebook mindlessly and saw that hardly anyone else cared. They were worried about the Bad Girl's Club and whatnot. I understand that in Maryland (where I'm from) it's not as big of a deal as it is in Pennsylvania, but there's an absolute lack of concern for something that could completely change our country.

We may be young but we're not kids anymore and pretty soon we will be on our own, and directly affected by our government's policies. If we don't start thinking about it now, I fear that we'll start when it's too late.

In yesterday's elections only 9 % of the voters were18-29 year-olds, and only 10 % were African-Americans. For the two groups who may be the most affected by the results of the election, I find it shocking (but not really) that these numbers are so low.

So what do we do about this problem? What will the consequences be for this lack of participation?