Our Voice
A word commonly referred to in our nation is freedom. The founding fathers of the United States decorated the Constitution with certain inalienable rights no person should be denied.
We all know what these rights included: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, petition and our favorite the press. Unfortunately, they forgot one essential right, the right to vote.
When the Constitution was written, only white male property owners (about 10 to 16 percent of the nation’s population) had the right to vote. The requirements to restrict the right to vote would diminish over the next two centuries. In the early 1800s, states gradually dropped property requirements for voting.
Women and African Americans were originally denied this basic right. These minority groups would protest for decades to be granted this right. In 1870, the fifteenth amendment was ratified, prohibiting the restriction of voting rights “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
This did not mean that states did not try to prohibit African Americans from voting. Florida and ten other states established a poll tax to block out African Americans, and Mississippi adopted a literacy test to stop some of them from getting to the polls.
Women on the other hand had to wait even longer. It was not until 1920 that the nineteenth amendment was ratified that gave women the right to vote.
The gates were let wide open in 1971 when the twenty-sixth amendment lowered the voter age requirement to 18.
Do you see any contrast between these three amendments? The first two amendments mentioned were protested rigorously. Females and African Americans were unyielding in achieving this right and they eventually earned it. They initially did not have the right and would not have been granted the right it they did not fight for it.
This is not so for the 18-21 age range. Why not? We’re old enough to serve in the military and die for our country, so aren’t we entitled to helping to choose our leader?
While this might seem like it would be the case, many people in that age range feel very apathetic about the entire voting process. It’s a shame, really.
Most people say that you don’t value something unless you earn it. Think about your car. Students who paid for their cars themselves have a higher value for it, because they know how hard it was to acquire.
Young voters take advantage of their right to vote because they did not earn it. If we were denied the right to vote would things change? We believe it would.
Take advantage of your rights. We are a ‘government by the people.’ We make the decisions and it is our obligation to let our voices be heard. Stop complaining about our government and be proactive Tuesday.
Go Vote.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 1 2008. Filed under Opinion, Our Voice.
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