Probably not as eloquent as I'd like to be, but...

[rynne]

A student from Linfield just called me and asked me about my college search. I told her that I was applying early decision to Puget Sound, and she sounded so depressed after that... I told her Linfield was my second choice, but I don't think that helped. :(

Random question about college--I'm applying online. There are things that I'm supposed to sign on the application. How do I sign them if they're online?

...Erm. Why are people either virulently pro-Yankees or anti-Yankees? What's the big deal about the Yankees? *does not follow baseball at all. Except the Giants. :p*

And now for something actually important...

Residents of the United States who are over eighteen...you're voting, aren't you?

Because if you're not...I don't know what to say to you. Voting is a privilege, and one that both Iraquis and the American (and British, et al) troops are being wounded and dying for. And we in America have it, we've fought our own battles for it, through the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, through Women's Suffrage, through the Vietnam War and lowering the voting age to eighteen...

Don't take it for granted.

For all of us who don't yet have the privilege of voting, whether it be due to age or because we aren't US residents...vote, because we can't.

Whether you want Bush to stay in office or get out of office, do your part for whatever end you want--vote.

I've volunteered before to try and get people voting, I intend to do it more as Election Day approaches, and it's all I can do for another four years (or other amounts, for non-presidential elections).

I don't care if you're voting Democrat, Republican, or none of the above. Just vote.

My school is having a school-wide forum, debating Bush vs Kerry. I can't go because I've got class at UNR, but I'd like to. There may not be many at my school who are old enough to vote, but there are some, and eighteen to twenty-four is the age with the lowest voter turnout. Maybe this forum will convince some of them that they need to register too.

We talked about voting in Government today, and found out that the United States is at a whopping 52.6% for people of voting age who actually vote, and I find that absolutely pathetic.

This country needs to wake up and take advantage of something that we've fought tooth and nail for over the years. Don't take it for granted anymore. Vote.

Vote for whomever you want, because you want them.

Vote, for the issues you think are important.

Vote, because I can't, and I want to.

And when I'm reading 1984, and have just finished Animal Farm, this world grows even more frightening...

Comments

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

...Erm. Why are people either virulently pro-Yankees or anti-Yankees? What's the big deal about the Yankees? *does not follow baseball at all. Except the Giants. :p*

The Yankees are the rich Republicans of the baseball world. Their team is made of money so they buy their "world" championships. It's obnoxious.

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

As for voting... well...

Let's just say I'm very very worried about the fact that I know several people (my foreign-born roommate included) who haven't received their absentee ballots yet.

And you can scroll back a post or two on my journal to see my opinions on the rest of it...

[latentfunction.livejournal.com]

*is voting* *has multiple icons to that effect*


*loves you*

[terredancer.livejournal.com]

Definitely voting.

Frequently, even when I'm sick, even when I have to walk to the voting station, even when both of those happen at once, I can't sleep knowing that I haven't. I just don't feel right about myself until I do. And that's in minor elections, the little bitty things that still matter in the end.

As for the anti-Yankees/pro-Yankees...

Well, I'm a diehard Blue Jays fan, and most years when they're doing well, they're always trailing behind the Yankees and the Red Sox so I vehemently hate both teams. For that reason. It's silly, possibly, but yeah. That's my reason why.

(*sigh* I love teams that don't get very far very often... there's the Cubs and the Blue Jays and the Twins. I'm doomed. *laughs*)

[ariastar.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Especially as I'm not legal to vote for a bit more than another year myself, and it's rather alarming to me that the people who actually can aren't taking advantage of it. So thank you so much for saying it.

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I hate it that I, who actually wants to, is not allowed to vote, while people who can don't. I want to say that if they don't vote, they're not allowed to complain, only they probably would anyway. *sigh*

[ourmutualfiend.livejournal.com]

What eruantale said.

Rooting for the Yankees is like "rooting for the house in blackjack... not only are they the resident bully, they like it that way, as their insufferable chest-thumping after the A-Rod trade proved once again." (Quote from some sports columnist)

Loving the Sox takes a damn fine bit of dedication- not the greatest, but always the greatest possibility. Excuse me... *sniff* gettingalltearyeyed *sniff*

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

They won again *G*

[ashesofautumn.livejournal.com]

'Cause the Yankees are the best ever. Nevermind that the Sox won tonight. *wince* It was fourteen innings long.

I usually follow the Yankees, but particularly when it's Yankees v. Red Sox, because *dramatic music* the curse of the bambino!

Re: voting
I convinced my older brother (who is in Israel) to vote via absentee ballot. I nagged him about it being every US citizen's right and how he should seize it. I believe, however, he's going to vote for George Bush. (Eh. Who's surprised? I haven't met a single Kerry-supporter anywhere I've been in Israel. It's practically the only country where there is an overwhelming majority of people that prefer Bush over Kerry.)

My high school is filled with extremes. It's either "apathy" or "extreme rabid hatred of [insert candidate]". I do figure that voter turnout around here, at least from the eligible seniors & all, will be pretty good.

[chimbleysweep]

In re: Yankees...

They are the evil incarnate and take all the fun out of baseball.

[tinitinytina.livejournal.com]

Ah, the online application questions I was having a few months ago. :D

I've only done part of Texas Common App (which is extremely confusing for something that's supposed to make the process easier) and Northwestern, so I don't know about other schools in general.

However, this is how it works. You create an account, and you can fill out the forms online. Then you can save to come back to later or decide to finish it (and it'll get sent off). For forms that need to be signed, such as an early decision contract, they'll make you (or at least Northwestern did) read a statement, check a box, then print out a copy of the form, sign it, get your parents to sign it, and possibly a counselor, then have you mail it in by snail-mail.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

I'm what you would call a fair-weather Yankees fan. I like them because they're from New York and they win comparatively often. I dislike them for all the reasons people have listed. I'm just not sporty.

As for voting... People have the right not to vote, and not voting is a form of free speech. However, I also believe that we owe it to ourselves, our family, our friends, and future generations to educate ourselves about the issues and fight for the ones in which we believe. Either by running for office and supporting our chosen candidate and voting.

Voting is a right for which we must fight. Look at what happened in Florida in 2000. People were denied the right to vote. Our country is not as free as we would often like to think.

I'm voting.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Dear Rynne,
it sounds nice, but, if I were American, I would refuse to vote. Why? Because voting would mean endorsing one of two candidates whom I both find loathsome (http://www.livejournal.com/users/fpb/30758.html). If we speak about liberty, I prize far more the liberty to criticize the scum we are stuck with as so-called leaders, than the "liberty" to endorse one of them. Until a candidate is presented who has a vague resemblance to a human being, my answer is simple: "a plague on both your houses"!

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Not liking either candidate enough to vote is your prerogative, of course. Many in America dislike both, and are going with the "lesser of two evils" approach, as we must have a president according to our Constitution. However, my personal view is that John Kerry would make a better president than George Bush has proven to be, and I would like to see him win the race, even if it is just because I want Bush out of office.

Of course, as there is a presidential election approaching quickly, this post takes on more urgency. But, while this current election inspired this post, it does not limit this post. I find voting in coming years (when there may indeed be candidates resembling human beings!), as well as voting in other elections (ie, Senate and House of Representatives, state officials, local officials, etc) to be equally as important.

I completely understand your views, and in some ways share them, for I am not precisely happy with our candidates either. But I think that if we must be stuck with one of them, we might as well do our best to elect the one we think would be better, which is why voting is essential.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

My problem with that is that my vote on a piece of paper means my support to one of two people whom I regard as equally, though in different ways, unfit to hold office. (I do not, of course, imagine that the matter of abortion has the same meaning for others as it has to me, but I can say that I, personally, would cross the road to avoid a person who has dared to vote for partial-birth abortion, especially if at the same time he still has the bloody cheek to demand the communion of my Church.) If I were an American citizen, I might vote Nader, or else look if any of the other no-hope candidates commended him or herself to me in any way. But the idea that one has to vote, no matter what, seems to me incompatible with freedom of conscience. I do not want to have to feel, one day, that someone in that position might owe anything to me. And freedom to vote must involve freedom not to vote, or else it ends up meaning simply the demand that any candidate produced by the major parties, however unfit, should have an automatic claim to our assent.

[rynne.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that one does not have the right not to vote--this isn't Australia, where you're fined if you don't. And I understand your views, and why you dislike both candidates based on your personal belief system, and I think that if you (hypothetically, as you're not a citizen) would suffer a crisis of conscience because you voted for either Bush or Kerry, then you should vote third-party or not vote at all. I just think that, if one candidate seems better to you than another, you should vote for that person, because I see voting as (no matter how insignificant it can be) a way to get the people in office who you think will do the job that needs to be done.

Like I said, I understand your position, and, in your case, agree with it. But for people who would have no such crisis of conscience caused by voting for one of these candidates, I think they should.

[immortalis.livejournal.com]

As far as the signing of the application goes, it varies from school to school. Sometimes they'll have you put in your social security number to act as your signature. Sometimes you have to print out the form and send it in with the signature.

As for the voting issue, I'm definitely voting this year. I'm trying to wait till the actual voting day and not do early voting, but it's so tempting to do early voting because I'm ridiculously excited to vote. I'm very much eager to do my part to get Bush out of office. :D

[marauderthesn.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, I'm bloody voting. Just got my absentee ballot yesterday.