I'm glad that I deciided to take Speech 25 this term. The class is on persuasive speaking, and all of us in it pick a topic or issue in which we're interested to look at in depth over the term. Our primary goal is to convince our audiences (other members of the class, and the professor), through speeches, that our feelings on an issue or topic are right, and to spur them to some sort of action -- hopefully one that will lead to an ultimate resolution of a problem or at least a change in general attitudes.
There are 21 of us in the speech class, and most of us have picked topics of personal interest. We are all, I think, aiming to bring about some changes in opinion in one another that will if not affect change, at least cause us all to think. These issues deal not only with campus life, but with larger national problems, international concerns and societal ills.
I thought a bit about my speech class, and the issues that we're all presenting, when I attended a public lecture Tuesday by Jon Cowan '87. He spoke as part of a program put on by the Rockefeller Center's New Leadership Project entitled, "Apathy to Action: How Our Generation Can Change America." Cowan is the president of Lead or Leave, an advocacy organization for college students that provides a voice for young Americans in the political process.
Cowan noted that there is a hell of a lot of apathy and political world-weariness present in our generation. He stressed the importance of getting involved in politics and issues to make a change -- even when it's so easy to become disconnected while here in Hanover, especially from a political system that seems to favor older politicians, geriatric interests and programs that ratchet our national debt upwards.
Of course, Cowan's observation that our generation is full of political ennui is only logical. A survey released by the American Council on Education and UCLA's Higher Education Institute earlier this year found that fewer than one-third of incoming college freshmen thought that keeping up with political affairs was important to them. These were the lowest numbers in 29 years of the survey. Our generation's voting percentages are even worse. In the 1992 Presidential election year, only 42.1 percent of us between the ages of 18 to 24 actually voted.
So, as I found myself agreeing with much of what Cowan was saying on Tuesday night, becoming more and more depressed about the political disinterestedness of my generation, I thought of my speech class.
I thought of the issues that were being discussed in our classroom -- affirmative action, welfare-reform, second hand smoke, the India-Pakistan conflict and nuclear power. These, among others, were being spoken on, discussed and questioned by all of us every Tuesday and Thursday, and I realized that we all aren't necessarily politically apathetic. Maybe dismayed with our political system or our politicians, but still holding important views and opinions that we're not afraid to espouse.
