Presidential elections are losing their meaning, spirit and importance. Over the centuries and generations, the interest has depleted in the younger people of America.

The usual saying that their vote doesn’t count, it’s only one, has become more of a slogan. If more and more are catching on to this trend, it will have an effect that can change the outcome of the entire nation.

Younger people tend to be opinionated and out-spoken, but only to a certain extent. Most are willing to speak their mind to others, but not act upon them when it comes time to vote. They can talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk.

In retrospect, the upcoming Presidential election is most influential to the younger generation. We have more to lose.

As students, we are hit the hardest with money problems. Financial aid is not available to a great portion of us because our parents are still factored in even if we have been living on our own since we were 18 years old and claim ourselves. Who is going to speak for us?

This next president has the potential to be in office for eight years. How much longer are our troops going to be fighting the war in Iraq? This will be decided by our president solely. We need someone with a plan.

We need a good public speaker, someone with experience and knowledge to bring to the future of this nation.

Some of these characteristics are found in the candidates and some are not. However, who will decide which one is best suited to run this country if those with the greatest opinion choose not to take a stand and vote?

When the older generation is gone and all we have left are the people that think their vote doesn’t matter, then what? This is what that group does not understand.

It is pathetic that in 2004 America was so desperate for voters that the “Vote or Die” campaign had to be created to get people enthusiastic about voting. This campaign was created by Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and is cosponsored by MTV.

Is this what really has to happen to get people to vote? Do we have to make this campaign real and put a gun to someone’s head and tell them to vote or die? This is an unrealistic and stupid slogan.

MTV also cosponsors other voting campaigns such as Rock the Vote, Choose or Loose and Citizen Change. These campaigns were created to encourage voting registration and inform young people of their political power.

Is information about voting enough to get people to vote? These campaigns do seem to help but not enough to get everyone to understand the importance of this year’s election.

What people need to realize is that we are living and breathing history. We don’t need a gun to do that. Look around. Turn on your television. For the first time, we have a woman, a black man and a Mormon with a real shot of being elected president.

When are we ever going to see this in our lifetime again? Hopefully, it will keep progressing but we may never see this combination of competitors again. We are living and breathing history.

There will always be that group of people that don’t vote. Not voting is a choice.

Our ancestors went through hard times and sacrifices to be able to vote. Some gave their lives for this. All of them traveled to a foreign land to start over and become a democracy. Others triumphed over racism and gender discrimination. Voting is our right and our duty to our nation.

Hillary Geiger can ber reached at [email protected]