GUEST COLUMN: Choose or lose - or don't complain

Gil Beverly explains theGil Beverly explains theimportance of registering andGil Beverly explains theimportance of registering andvoting in the general election. Gil Beverly explains theimportance of registering andvoting in the general election. Four years ago, as the presidential election of 1992 approached, I was an idealistic freshman enjoying my first year at Penn. Freshman year is an exciting time when everything you do seems new and exciting. I had just turned 18, so voting that November seemed like yet another cool new experience I would have as a college student. When the time came, I proudly marched down to High Rise East to cast my vote. When I got there, however, disaster struck. I was not on the official rolls because many voter registrations from this area had been lost, a volunteer said. I was pretty upset. I could not believe that I would not get the opportunity I'd been waiting so long for. If I wanted to vote, the volunteer said, I would have to go out to some courthouse in West Philadelphia to fill out a new voter registration card and swear before a judge that I had filled one out before. Well, I was not going to be denied my chance to be an adult, so off to this courthouse I went. After trekking alone across scenic West Philadelphia, I got to the spot and proceeded to navigate my way through a maze of bureaucracy and paperwork -- only to have to wait close to an hour to see the judge. When His Honor finally showed up, I was sworn in and questioned just like a witness on a TV courtroom drama. The whole setting, with this judge towering over me on his bench, was very intimidating. I came close to confessing how I used to steal bubble gum at the drug store everyday before junior high. But I didn't crack. After I had satisfactorily answered all the judge's questions, I was given some sort of waiver to take back to the polling place. I hiked back to HRE and defiantly stuffed that waiver in that volunteer's face, the same way you do the first time you show your ID to a bouncer when you first become legal. "Just try to stop me!" I was thinking. And he didn't. So I did, in the end, get to vote. But the whole experience was so much more satisfying because I had to work for it. I was very surprised at the reaction I got when I recounted the experience to some of my friends. Most of them were really surprised I would go through all the trouble I had just to cast a ballot. I immediately thought to myself that none of my grandparents were allowed to vote due to where they lived and the color of their skin. I thought about how all four of them would likely put me over their knee and give me an old-fashioned spanking if I had not gone through the trouble of exercising a right they and their peers fought so hard to gain. I did not know it then, but my friend's attitude was actually fairly representative of our age group. Young people generally tend to be very blase about the political process and voting. A recent Newsweek survey revealed that only 29 percent of college freshmen thought it important to keep up with politics, an all-time low. In 1994, according to the census bureau, 37 percent of citizens from ages 18 to 24 were registered voters, compared to 67 percent of all citizens of voting age. In the last presidential election, 57 percent of eligible young voters never registered and never voted. And yet that was the highest turnout ever for Generation X! Our age group staying away from the polls is a serious problem with equally serious repercussions. If we don't vote, then politicians and others who run our country do not feel they must to be sensitive to our needs and our issues. This indifference leads to things like cuts in education funding and the curbing of guaranteed federal student loan programs. But in the news, we constantly see President Clinton and Republican candidate Bob Dole pandering to the elderly, who go to the polls in droves. Clinton and Dole are constantly fussing and fighting over issues that affect older Americans, such as Social Security and Medicare, in order to keep the crucial support of that voting bloc. Here at Penn, in all our Ivy-ness, we tend to think of ourselves as better and more enlightened then the average college student. Yet it always seems that come Election Day, there are more people volunteering at the polls than there are students voting. This year, that needs to change. This year, there is absolutely no excuse for not registering and voting. Registration cards have been simplified and every day this week, there will be people on the Walk, including President Rodin, to distribute them. If voter registration cards seem outdated to you or if you are particularly lazy, you can register via the World Wide Web at MTV's "Rock the Vote" homepage: "http://www.rockthevote.org" or at the Young America Political Action Committee's homepage: "http://www.libertynet.org/~yamerica". Over 100 years ago, Benjamin Disraeli, a former British Prime Minister, said "We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can no longer be synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour!" Now, a century later, these words ring truer than ever. We, the youth of America, must stand up and be counted now -- or we risk selling ourselves and our future down the river. See you at the Rock the Vote event, on 33rd Street between Chestnut and Market streets, next Monday, September 30!