As I watched the American soldiers leaping onto the tarmac at the international airport in Port-Au-Prince this past Monday, a realization slowly crept into my mind.
Most of these soldiers, sent by President Clinton to oversee the peaceable transition of power from the military junta in Haiti to the elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide, were about my age.
I suppose that I've actually always known that. I know one or two people in the U.S. Armed Forces, not to mention some friends of mine who serve in the Reserve Officers ' Training Corps. Yet it never really sunk in that the bulk of America's soldiers, the men and women on CNN shown occupying Haiti, are our peers.
These men and women are in Haiti on behalf of our nation, risking their lives and well-being to help restore a democratically elected leader, and to me that is subtly ironic. For it seems to me that many times, those of us here in the United States, who always have the luxury of democratically electing our leaders, choose not to vote.
I find that disturbing, and especially disturbing when people our age choose not to cast a ballot.
This past year has been an extraordinarily active one in the world of politics and U.S. foreign policy. Congress passed NAFTA, the President's economic plan and the crime bill, and foreign crises have arisen in Haiti, Cuba and North Korea.
All of these issues have consequences that will affect our generation now or in the future. Whether our fellow peers or classmates are deployed to Haiti or Cuba, or if the President's economic plan lessens the burden of debt that we will face later in life, the decisions of our elected leaders eventually affect all of us.
The next two years will be just as instrumental in shaping the future path that our country takes. Health care policy and trade agreements loom, and both of these issues will directly affect our future quality of life.
On November 8th, a general election will be held. Many important House and Senate as well as gubenatorial elections will take place.
If you are registered to vote in New Hampshire, vote. If you are registered in your home state, call your county clerk for an absentee ballot and vote. Whether you vote for Dick Swett or Charlie Bass in the New Hampshire House race, Frank Lautenberg or Chuck Haytian in the New Jersey Senate race, or Pete Wilson or Kathleen Brown in the California governor's race, just merely do so.
Just as soldiers of our generation traveled to Haiti to insure the democratic process, we, in voting, should all do the same.
