I challenge you.
Is this the generation of the enlightened and the inspired, the YouTube generation with unlimited knowledge at our fingertips? I say to you, my copatriots, rise up and take the power back.
America should be governed by the people, not the pocketbook or the pundits on TV. The corporations are tricking the masses with the candidates they feed you through the boob tube. Abandon apathy. Educate yourselves before it is too late, before another Bush can take office.
I challenge you.
There is a student group on campus trying to bring a presidential candidate to speak. This man almost always has supporters on campus, and his radically different message has been ignored by the media.
With that willingness and need to come here, Accent should find a way to bring Ron Paul and any other available presidential candidates to campus. They would speak free of charge and are still politically relevant, unlike Alberto Gonzales, who is inconsequential and costing us ,40,000.
I challenge you.
I have been registering people to vote on campus for days now. Registering to vote is the easiest thing in the world to do. You fill out a form that would take the drunkest of Florida State University fans fewer than five minutes to finish. Yet many students have demonstrated they have no time to register or that it is somehow beneath them.
I challenge you.
I challenge you to remove yourself from your Facebook world for five minutes. I challenge you to see the effects American politics and government have on the real world though you may not see them every day.
I challenge you.
The presidential primary in Florida with early voting begins Jan. 14. The deadline to register to vote in this election is Dec. 31.
I challenge you to see through the nonsense, through the corporate lies and the opinions of the uninformed. I challenge you to stand up for the values America was built on: freedom from government and liberty for all.
I challenge you to vote. Democracy is an active process, which is only truly alive when citizens take action. Activism is important. People in other countries fight and die for the voting rights we so carelessly ignore.
If you call yourself an American, if you love this country, register to vote in the primary.
Or do more.
Student Government's Chomp the Vote office in the Reitz Union has the forms and the pens so you can help register people. Be a patriot and help others use their democratic privilege. Register voters in Alachua County. Explain to people that Florida has a history of not counting absentee ballots.
The 2000 election was won by 537 votes. Your vote counts. Stand up and be counted!
Andrew Meyer is a senior majoring in telecommunication.
