Ah, College
"Rock the Apathy 2004"

Locally, the student government elections are going on. I just got an e-mail asking for 100% participation from the student body. Look, on any given day at Penn State, you're asking a lot by looking for 100% student consciousness.

-Not to sway anyone one way or another, but I typically don't vote. Why? People say your vote counts. It's not true, though. I've been in too many Trix elections for new fruit shapes that "mysteriously" ended in a tie to believe in democracy anymore.

The voice of the people indeed, berry banana split...

-Election day means people handing out fliers and yelling slogans at you as you walk around campus. But voting for whoever some random person tells you to is stupid. Vote for better reasons, like who made the coolest campaign poster.

-A lot of people urge you to get out there and vote. Most people probably have no problem with voting. But for a lot of college students, I think that the real problem is that whole "get out there" part.

-To increase voter turnout, voting for student government here can be done online. It's nice to know that even if you're too lazy to turn over in bed, you can blindly reach over to your computer desk and shape the future of Penn State.

-All this reminds me - yesterday I got mail from the Republican party reminding me to vote in this year's election. I suddenly realized that I had totally forgotten about the election. And that I was a Republican.

-Some people who don't vote are still respected because they have cool reasons. Just once when someone asks why I'm not voting, I'd like to say, "I don't want to be some cog in a corrupt machine." You know, as opposed to the truth, "I can't go vote. 'Scrubs' is on."

-It's great to live in America. Thirty percent of the people vote and ten percent of those know what's going on. Ah, democracy. Um...that's still what we are, right?