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Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
Election season has come around once again. You can always tell when a bitter contest looms when the candidates are forced to draw their faces in chalk. But for Metro there are no Lincoln versus Douglas debates, and it's a real shame.
I will try to be tactful, but there is a question dying to be answered. I assume I'm not the only one who wonders, who are you people? I know you occupy a corner of the Tivoli, but your purpose beyond that simply baffles me.
I resisted writing myself in to the ballot, so you've no need to worry I will steal your place. Honestly, I don't want it. But when I opened the "bio" section of the ballot and found little to no interesting facts, it made think the values that the national population aren't in line with the values of Metro.
Is there nothing more special about you than your name? Okay, maybe that's special to your parents. But you're simply strangers to me if I've never seen your face.
(Andrew Bateman, consider yourself off the hook. Your chalk homage was classy.)
Frankly, it made me feel like you guys don't give a damn. If you don't give a damn, why should I? Furthermore, the lack of names on the ballot should be indicative of a problem. Are you sensing a theme?
These are parts of the culture of Metro that are endemic to all students. You come, you learn, you leave. But I think that the Student Government as a whole could go a long way to affect the involvement of students by and large on this campus.
It's almost safe to say that the voting population of the United States is starting to care more about the political process. Is it too much to ask that you jump on that bandwagon? What could it hurt to shake some hands and hold some babies?
In the very least, affect the lives of students in the way that any representatives should. If you're willing to run for office here it shouldn't be an easy job. The Student Government of Metro should be willing to shoulder the public image of the student body, and represent it fairly.
I don't care that you wanted to use my student fees to add $25,000 to your office furniture collection. My only objection is that such a use of funds gives senators and other "elected" officials more places to put appendages that typically grow in an office job.
I do care that there is little effort on your part to initiate contact with the community you represent. I say this as a Metro veteran. I say this as someone who has passed those I know I have elected to office and have received no gratitude for my vote.
If you can't make my vote feel like it counts, I must continue to write-in random classmates and imaginary friends as senators on ballots. At least when they arrive at that office, though stunned by their election, I can say that I did something to effect the political process of this campus.
It never pays for politicians to be shy. Politics are a customer based business. When your constituents pay for your plush, albeit small office, we should come to expect quality. Instead, it's anticipated that the student body won't care. It's anticipated that there will be low turn-out for student-government run programs and polls.
Stop anticipating because there is nothing typical about this campus. Effective SGA requires flexibility and something like an improvised fox trot. It never pays to stand still. But the Student Government office has been standing still since I arrived at this insitution in 2003.
So let's delay the elections. Let's give you candidates a chance to either huff and puff and blow my office down or take the better route: rewrite your bios.
Make us care.
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