An Open Letter to Vishal Aswani
Vishal,
I think it’s time we start this discussion.
You’ve been doing a great job so far, but there’s something you need to do for our school:
Get us election day off.
November 4th is a big day for this country and especially it’s young people. On a typical school day, many students have trouble finding time to eat between reading and class. In a historic election like this one, the lines at the polling places could be hours long. I would hate to see a situation where students have to get out of line at their local polling place to make sure they make their Intro to Anthropology quiz. As much as we say you could work it out with your professor, I’m sure that is not the case for all professors.
Beyond the time issue, there are A LOT of GW students who plan to be on the ground in Virginia the day of the election. There is a strong chance that our neighbors to the south will be the tipping point this year, and I think it’s great that our campus is working towards that. It would be detrimental to the active political student body at GW if they got a zero on their Astronomy mid-term because they were fighting for a candidate they believed in.
This isn’t unheard of. The crazy conversative Liberty University in Virginia (run by Jerry Falwell) is giving their students the day off and driving them for free to the polling place. They also attempted a massive registration drive to make sure every student on their campus could vote. This is leading CNN to say that ONE University could tip the election to McCain. Look Vishal, read about it here!
November 4th is an incredibly important day for the majority of the campus, and the University should provide us with the opportunity to participate. You are our only real voice with in the administration, and I think this is worth fighting for.
Vishal, get us election day off.
Love always,
Travis Ryan Helwig
P.S. Update more. I like your blog!
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Comments
I’m down with the day off obviously. It will allow people to experience the election.
However, class is not an acceptable reason for not voting. You can register absentee in VA or MD.
Do you really want to have something in common with Liberty University? I mean, seriously. I live in the same town as Liberty. I’ll give you the skivvy on all their dastardly deeds (google liberty university snowflex and see how they spend $12 million).
My favorite Liberty University folly was definitely the clearing of trees off of Candler’s Mountain so that they could do this:
http://www.campusexplorer.com/media/376×262/Liberty-University-26061097.jpg
FUCK NATURE.
The situation between Liberty and us is completely different.
1) We are not in a swing state.
2) Most students are not registered to vote here or anywhere close to here.
3) Even those who do live close are also not located in swing states. I suppose GW’s vast New England population could go vote but, hint hint, Obama will carry New England.
4) If you’re not registered as a permanent absentee by now, you’re not smart enough to vote anyway.
It doesn’t make sense to shut the school down because a percentage of the student population has to vote.
It DOES make sense to shut the school down so the myriad employees of the school can vote. Most of them aren’t away from home because they are living at college.
Absentee is lame, but that’s only because absentee votes probably won’t be counted.
“4) If you’re not registered as a permanent absentee by now, you’re not smart enough to vote anyway.”
What if you’re not registered as a permanent absentee by now, and you’re smart enough to vote? Like a lot of people.
Well, I think Soul was using “smart” to denote “interested in voting & desirous of not missing the quickly approaching deadline.”
Very specific definition.
Very strange.
Hello.
If you live in the DC suburbs, why the hell would you have to “miss classes?” Polling precincts are open, like, all day and stuff. Unless you have 5 classes on election day, I think you could probably manage the commute without skipping class — not that you’d want to not skip class. In conclusion, just remember that one vote–the marginal vote if you want to get all mathematical and shit–doesn’t matter (even in the oh-so-hotly-contested “battleground” state Commonwealth of Virginia). Bye, bye.
So the only time someone’s vote matters is when someone wins an election by one vote? You’re an idiot.
I thought the point was that people are working in polling centers and the like? That’s what I gathered from it. Honestly I think it’s more about the professors. Give them a chance to not have to rush and wonder if they have time to vote but rather know they have time. day off.
You do realize you aren’t just voting for the president when you vote in a general election? Because my vote *does* matter for the House of Representatives and lots of other local offices.
“Because my vote *does* matter for the House of Representatives and lots of other local offices.”
The chance that your vote will matter for even the House of Representatives race in your district is abysmally small. You have a low probability of effecting local elections, but I suppose it’s “high” enough to make THAT particular vote worth the effort.
Otherwise, voting is basically a fetish (sorry, “personal statement”) with little practical impact on the world.
I hate to sound like an eight grade civics teacher, but if everyone felt that way and stayed home, no one would vote.
Or worse, the election would be left to a very small and likely very terrifying minority of people motivated by their whacked out agendas.
The fact that the 2006 Virginia senate race was decided by less than 10,000 votes and that Liberty University is basically mobilizing 10,000 far-right soldiers of Christ to vote for McCain & Co. would be enough to convince me that my vote, along with thousands of others terrified by that thought, does in fact matter.
“I hate to sound like an eight grade civics teacher, but if everyone felt that way and stayed home, no one would vote.
Or worse, the election would be left to a very small and likely very terrifying minority of people motivated by their whacked out agendas.”
Great. You people can think the way you want, and I can think the way I want. I wasn’t encouraging them or you not to vote (though I do believe that it would make an interesting statement about widespread disaffection with politics if nobody did). I just choose not to waste my time voting in an election that my vote clearly will not effect.*
Anyway, how do you know that I’m not a member of one of those “terrifying minorities”? You ought, I think, to be encouraging people like that to stay home on election day.
* “Clearly” doesn’t even begin to describe my certainty. Even if I lived in the most contested state in the Union, AND thousands of voters in that state chose to stay home on election day, my chance of influencing the outcome of the Presidential election (ala Costner) would still be abysmally low. Don’t think that I’m trying to knock voters, even if I think many of them to be misguided. Do what you want. But I’m peeved by those people that try to make me feel bad for choosing to be politically active in other (infinitely more efficacious) ways.
If you’re political views lie outside the two mainstream parties, then I can see why not voting is a legitimate form of political expression. I don’t think everyone who thinks that their vote doesn’t matter is necessarily in that category. Thus, I agree with the sentiment that “my vote not doesn’t matter” isn’t always an intelligent political statement.
Bill F, if Pat is right, isn’t it silly to refuse to vote for the candidate you think would do better than the other?
Steps in the right direction are still steps!
Exactly! Why vote at all? Just “think” it. You’ll almost have the same amount of influence.
And unlike Bill F., I am encouraging you all not to vote.
And Pat B., if you vote with the two major parties, your vote is probably even less significant. At least ballot-qualified minor parties get their pathetic vote counts tabulated, making voting as some sort of weird political statement somewhat justifiable.
But voting is still a selfish act and contributes almost zero to the collective good (other than making voters feel good about themselves). Your time would be better spent volunteering at a homeless shelter instead of standing in line at your polling precinct if you really want to do good.
i’m voting. i disagree that either candidate is a step in the right direction, so even though i don’t like either, that doesn’t mean i can vote for a “better one” because it’s really a matter of “less terrible.” so, i’m going to do a write in. For Joey from NKOTB. Because i want a NKITWH.
McCain will kill all of us.
Obama won’t.
Not killing all of us>Killing all of us
Obama>McCain.
-KIRK
Oh Hell yes. I am a resident of Maryland, so I have to go home to vote and will consequently have to miss classes. The same is true of one of my professors for that day as well. It seems stupid, aside from all the other “educational” reasons for skipping class to experience the excitement of the election, that my civic duties as a resident of Maryland should have to conflict with my academic ones.