Spring Break
Letter to the editor
Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: Ed-Op
Dear Editor,
These remarks were given to open the Super Tuesday event in Behrakis Grand Hall this past Tuesday night.
Thanks for coming out for this Super Tuesday extravaganza, and thanks to the College Republicans, the Drexel Dems, and the Drexel Votes 2008 Committee for hosting it.
It's Super Tuesday, and for the first time in history, half of our country is going to the polls to vote. That is an incredible thought! But as you watch this election unfold, I want you to think about what an election means.
In Kenya, today, women are being raped, men beheaded, and villages razed, all because of an election. In Pakistan, today, suicide bombers are terrorizing shopping markets, a country's Supreme Court Chief Justice is under house arrest, scores of lawyers are in prison, and candidates are being assassinated, all because of an election. And not so long ago, in South Africa, people stood in lines for five and six hours, after sometimes walking for days, just so they could vote in an election.
In America, it's a wonder if more than 30 percent of us vote, and that's 30 percent of the registered voters; a fraction of all of those to whom our Constitution gives the power to vote.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. As fun as it is to cheer on your favorite candidate while you watch the returns, this is not a football game. The presidential election is not the Super Bowl. You should not be content to sit back with popcorn and sodas, flip the remote, and just watch. It's okay for tonight; do it! and I will, too.
But for the first time in the 37 years that I have been voting, this year, the Pennsylvania primary could be pivotal in deciding who will be the next President of the United States.
When tonight's show is over, when all of the votes are counted, when all of the winners and all of the delegate counts are announced, when all of the pundits have stopped talking and gone to bed, tomorrow, pledge that you will get up out of your beds and get to work, helping your classmates register to vote, making sure they have absentee ballots, informing them about the issues, and on April 22, primary day in Pennsylvania, getting them to vote.
This is a democracy. We here at Drexel are among the most educated people in the world, at a prestigious university, among the nation's elite.
We know far, far better than most, what power governments have to do right and wrong, and to affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people with the single stroke of a pen.
Citizenship takes effort. Voting here does not mean that you will have to stand in line for five or six hours, get beaten, have your homes burned down, go to jail, or die.
We are not entitled to vote; we are obligated to vote. Going to the polls and voting is the least, the very least, we can do to fulfill our duty as a citizen of the United States of America.
Don't just sit there. You cannot. This is the election of the most powerful person in the world. You have a role to play in it. Live it. Do it. Make sure Drexel votes.
Carl Oxholm III
Executive Vice President
Drexel University
These remarks were given to open the Super Tuesday event in Behrakis Grand Hall this past Tuesday night.
Thanks for coming out for this Super Tuesday extravaganza, and thanks to the College Republicans, the Drexel Dems, and the Drexel Votes 2008 Committee for hosting it.
It's Super Tuesday, and for the first time in history, half of our country is going to the polls to vote. That is an incredible thought! But as you watch this election unfold, I want you to think about what an election means.
In Kenya, today, women are being raped, men beheaded, and villages razed, all because of an election. In Pakistan, today, suicide bombers are terrorizing shopping markets, a country's Supreme Court Chief Justice is under house arrest, scores of lawyers are in prison, and candidates are being assassinated, all because of an election. And not so long ago, in South Africa, people stood in lines for five and six hours, after sometimes walking for days, just so they could vote in an election.
In America, it's a wonder if more than 30 percent of us vote, and that's 30 percent of the registered voters; a fraction of all of those to whom our Constitution gives the power to vote.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. As fun as it is to cheer on your favorite candidate while you watch the returns, this is not a football game. The presidential election is not the Super Bowl. You should not be content to sit back with popcorn and sodas, flip the remote, and just watch. It's okay for tonight; do it! and I will, too.
But for the first time in the 37 years that I have been voting, this year, the Pennsylvania primary could be pivotal in deciding who will be the next President of the United States.
When tonight's show is over, when all of the votes are counted, when all of the winners and all of the delegate counts are announced, when all of the pundits have stopped talking and gone to bed, tomorrow, pledge that you will get up out of your beds and get to work, helping your classmates register to vote, making sure they have absentee ballots, informing them about the issues, and on April 22, primary day in Pennsylvania, getting them to vote.
This is a democracy. We here at Drexel are among the most educated people in the world, at a prestigious university, among the nation's elite.
We know far, far better than most, what power governments have to do right and wrong, and to affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people with the single stroke of a pen.
Citizenship takes effort. Voting here does not mean that you will have to stand in line for five or six hours, get beaten, have your homes burned down, go to jail, or die.
We are not entitled to vote; we are obligated to vote. Going to the polls and voting is the least, the very least, we can do to fulfill our duty as a citizen of the United States of America.
Don't just sit there. You cannot. This is the election of the most powerful person in the world. You have a role to play in it. Live it. Do it. Make sure Drexel votes.
Carl Oxholm III
Executive Vice President
Drexel University
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