Editorial: Looking forward in the fall
By JJ Ossola
IV Leader Staff, Oct. 19, 2006
Life is starting to move pretty quickly for some people
here on campus.
The holidays are fast approaching, the weather is getting
cooler, and mid-term tests and papers have come and gone for some.
Parties are being planned, football is on the tube all
weekend, and the leaves have started to litter the streets.
God, I love this time of year! The mid-term elections are
another thing that makes this season special to me. Pretty corny, but true.
I wasn’t always this way. Although I voted from the time I
was able to, I didn’t get out there and vote every time.
Is it good enough to just vote for the president?
One minor day in four years time, half the time you don’t
recognize the names the further down the ballot you get. Like many people, the
2000 election got me motivated (no, I didn’t vote for Gore or Bush) by what our
process has become and how politicians work their strategy.
After 2000, I started to vote in primaries and I also started
looking into who the winners of the primaries were before their campaigns
reshaped them and gave them soundbytes to go out into the media with.
I was fully prepared for who I was going to vote for well
before the election was set. That is until someone started their mud-slinging
campaigning. I understand that its part and parcel for today’s political
maneuvering in the media but what a shame.
Like many other voters, that person was not voted for. What
it boils down to is this: mud and money sometime win the day but only when the
voters don’t do their due diligence on the candidate.
Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear, until
you double check it, unless you don’t plan on voting...then just enjoy show,
it’s part of the season.