To the Editor:
It is not often that a column or article in The Dartmouth sufficiently angers me to publicly pen a response. Yet the commentary by Joe Peters '99 ["Why Vote?," The Dartmouth, Oct. 14] is of such rhetorical apathy and bitter indifference that I must strongly encourage fellow Dartmouth Students and Americans not to head his misconstrued advice.
It is my opinion that Peters' piece, titled "Why Vote," is demonstrative of the very "continued mediocrity" with which he charges the American political process. Like so many modern journalists and critics, Peters is attacking the system without assuming responsibility for his own ability to improve or alter it. The use of such rhetoric is both patriotically repugnant, and represents a blatantly irresponsible perspective of the democratic process. While I applaud his enthusiastic exercise of the first amendment, I must decry his unwillingness to engage in the very process essential to the preservation of such rights.
Politics is a reality wherein apathy is in itself a political action. In deciding not to vote, Peters has made a political statement. The subsequent decision to share his opinion openly through the free press is also a political decision. His article is inherently contradictory and democratically ironic in that he asserts his own political ideology at the cost of criticizing the political process which defends his right to hold and voice that ideology. Peters' statement is illustrative of a disturbing mindset shared among some modern journalists and critics: they assume the immutability of their constitutional rights while rejecting their responsibility to the democratic process.
Perhaps Peters is in a legal, social and financial position where the outcome of the national, state and local campaigns this November will not affect the quality or direction of his life. He may find the stakes low, the candidates uninspiring and the issues stale.
Regardless of his own situation, however, he could at the very least develop a sense of civic empathy. Empathy for the men and women in uniform who have served and died defending this nation's ideals. Or for immigrants seeking asylum from social and political oppression abroad. Or even for the financial aid student who sits next to him in class, a student whose Dartmouth Experience depends upon grants and loans from the Federal Government.
Voting is not a right, my friends: it is a responsibility. It's a responsibility to the community, to your freedoms and to others.
I don't care who you are, where you are from or if you don't agree with my personal politics. If you are an American, get yourself to the polls Nov. 5 and take responsibility for it.
I have news for you, Joe: Democracy is not a free lunch. It's time to pay up.
