Kinda ashamed to say my frustration boiled over at school last night

[belladonna]

I don't smoke anymore, but I walked out to the smoking area with a girl from my class that I enjoy talking to during a break. Last week, there were people going around trying to register people to vote and there are two girls standing out there smoking and complaining about it. At first I ignored it, but this one girl kept going on about it... "if I wanted to vote, I'd have registered when I got my license" and "everywhere I went last week, these jerks kept bugging me to register, like I don't have better things to do". :eyes:

So I asked her, very nicely... "You don't think it's important to vote"? She rolls her eyes and says, "I have the rest of my life to worry about that kind of crap".... yes, she called it "that kind of crap".

Still being nice, I ask, "Do you drive a car? Pay for gas"? She says yeah, but what does that have to do with anything. I asked if she enjoyed filling up her tank when gas was almost 3 bucks a gallon not so long ago? Oh yeah, she says, that totally sucked. So I told her she couldn't complain about it, especially if the Republicans keep the House and Senate and gas prices skyrocket after the election. You don't vote, you can't complain... period. I then asked her if she was receiving financial aid. She says yep, student loans AND PELL grants. So I ask her, how would you like it if your financial aid award for the spring semester gets cut in half and you have to either work a full-time job to make your tuition or drop out of school. But that CAN'T happens, she says. Uh-huh, keep on believing that, sweetie. Oh yeah, and if and when it happens? YOU DO NOT GET TO COMPLAIN... got it? If you cannot be bothered to take one hour out of your day this year to vote, you are not allowed to whine or complain when things get taken away from you or you have to pay 50 bucks a week for gas just to get to your classes.

This girl from class speaks up then. She knows the other girl standing out there and that she has two pre-school age kids. She was just talking last week about how she kind of dreaded her kids starting school because she had seen the back-to-school lists they give out in the stores and couldn't believe how much kids have to take to school now. Tissues, soap, etc.... things I never remember having to take to school. I added that if she thought THAT was bad, my sister's kids who go to school in Florida, had to take TOILET PAPER to school this year. Now, why is it that schools are making the parents buy all of these things??? Could it be asshole politicians who slash the school's budgets in half? Hmmmm.... yeah, I think it might just be. Perhaps we should VOTE these assholes out of office?

Unfortunately, our conversation had to end there because our break was over and we had to head back to class. I'm not sure I did the right thing... perhaps I should keep my mouth shut at school and not pick fights with silly little girls, but what's done is done :shrug:

[petronius]

1. I'd say you definitely did the right thing

At the very least, you planted the idea that things happening outside of her little circle can still affect her. Your comments were very reasonable - not fight-picking at all. Maybe she or a bystander will start to think a little, or even pick up a newspaper... Good job!

[Chan790]

2. No, you got it right.

Young people are stupid and nobody ever explains "that kind of crap".

I know because I was one just 6 years ago, still act like one, and didn't know a lot of "that kind of crap" until I majored in poli. sci. and realized I had no idea how the system even worked or why I was majoring in it.

Why don't young people vote? Because nobody connects the dots for them. Now...if you run into that girl again and she still hasn't registered to vote (or voted)...then you need to break out a big stick.

[belladonna]

5. I guess that's why I tried not to sound too mean

My oldest daughter was like that for awhile and, hell, she grew up with me carrying on all the time about politics. I think she may have gotten too used to hearing it, because when she got her first opportunity to vote and told me she didn't know if she would or not, I realized that even she hadn't really connected the dots herself. We ended up having a pretty good talk about it and I'm proud to say that she went and cast her first ballot as a Democrat and actually UNDERSTOOD why she was doing it :D:

[fudge stripe cookays]

7. Next time you see her out there...

Ask her if she wants 12 kids whether she wants to have them or not. When she looks flabbergasted, tell her it could happen if she doesn't pay attention.

If she wonders what's up, just say, "I don't care how you feel about abortion, but these nuts are trying to take away your birth control. For fuck's sake, PAY ATTENTION to what's happening in your lifetime."

It was a rude awakening for me, sitting in the clinic reading pamphlets about the religious right, but it stirred me out of a lifetime of apathy. Might work for her.

[belladonna]

8. I plan to

Given ten more minutes, I definitely would have squeezed the abortion issue in there. She didn't seem mad or upset, just a little taken aback, so I think approaching her again won't be a problem.

[fudge stripe cookays]

17. Good girl.

:thumbsup:

We have GOT to educate young women, above all, about what's happening to their rights. They're so blithe. They have no clue.

[ThomCat]

3. You are awesome. It's absolutely what they need to hear.

:applause:

[belladonna]

12. Awww, thanks!

I don't know about awesome, but I guess we all have to do what we can to wake up the sheeple, eh? :shrug:

[Patiod]

4. I've told my FRIENDS that

and they're still my friends, surprisingly.

One of my true-blue Republican friends NEVER votes. I never remind her (of course), but I always use the "don't want to hear your complaints - you didn't vote" line afterwords

[belladonna]

6. I have an older aunt who lives in Maine who hasn't voted in years

My mother constantly uses that line on her when she starts complaining about the high gas prices or cost of groceries. We've both worked on her, but to this day she still won't vote. Of course, to be fair, she has a lot of health issues and, I believe anyway, a real problem with depression that seems to have created this constant state of inertia she stays in all the time :shrug:

[Iris]

9. Jeez. It takes like 2 seconds to register to vote.

Voting in a major election might take a couple of hours out of 1 day of your life every 4 years, but other than that, it's the probably the least bothersome and painful "crap" that girl will be putting up with for the rest of her life.

[belladonna]

13. That is the part I truly don't get

It is NOT THAT HARD to register to vote and to figure out who to vote for and why you're voting for them. Especially now, with the internet and the ability to look up a candidate's voting record or any other information in a matter of minutes. All that information available with the click of a mouse... yet some of these same people who don't have the time to do this will spend hours on MySpace. Go figure :shrug:

[skygazer]

10. Don't ever start keeping your mouth shut about this

You were eminently reasonable and made very good points. I had a similar conversation with a girl at work recently who told me she's never voted because she doesn't know "who to vote for." I told her that it's up to her to find out, that democracy is not easy and that it's our duty as citizens to learn about the issues, form opinions, find out what the parties and candidates stand for and vote accordingly. And then I cited some of the same examples you did of what happens when people don't make their voices heard.

I'm not sure how much of an impression I may have made but I refuse to keep my mouth shut about something so crucial.

[belladonna]

11. You're right and I don't plan to

I'm just glad I was as reasonable as I was, given my state of mind when I went off on my rant here yesterday afternoon :blush:

[Sequoia]

14. People have been murdered, lynched for the right to vote.

Last night on PBS was "Eye on the Prize" about Freedom Summer and the people from Yankee Way who came down south to help the blacks register to vote. It was a scary time and these people put their lives on the line but the dirt poor blacks had to live there and deal with the rednecks who'd sooner kill them then let them vote at all. So next time, you might want to ask her if she was aware of this milestone in our recent history. As always, the media as a whole didn't take much notice of blacks being murdered until the white guys were killed, then ole Johnson had to do something.

[belladonna]

21. I think that's one of the major reasons it pisses me off

I mean, so many people fought for the right to vote and then these people can't be bothered? And women? There was a time when women weren't allowed to vote either and if a lot of the right wing nut jobs had their way, it'd be that way again. Another thing, something I mentioned in my pissed off rant yesterday, some of these very same people think it's just WONDERFUL that we're forcing our brand of democracy on the Iraqi's and will justify the war in Iraq by saying "But didn't you see all those people VOTING in Iraq"? Ummm, okay... it's wonderful for THEM, but YOU can't be bothered... just wonderful :eyes:

[texas1928]

15. You did just fine.

I don't know how many times, i clued young people in to the reasons why they need to vote. They don't think about how much what our politicians do affects them and everyone.

[Mojambo]

16. Kids in Florida have to take toilet paper to school?

Man! I used to have mild panic attacks when I forgot to bring a pencil.

My opinion of Florida continues to fall.

[belladonna]

22. They sure do, thanks to little brother Bush

My sister rants about it all the time and tried SO hard to get that asshole voted out last time. I thought we had it bad in Virginia until she showed me what HER back-to-school list looked like :crazy:

[maxsolomon]

18. its EASY to vote absentee

just fill it out and mail it in.

lazy fucking proles.

[bertha katzenengel]

19. RECOMMENDED. Let's get this on the front page!

Good for you, Belladonna! Oh, I wish I had brass ovaries like that!

[LynzM]

20. Awesome...

I wish someone had done this for me sooner!! I didn't much pay attention to politics before 2001. I voted for Gore, because Bush struck me like a moron, etc. But it was 2001 when I met Briarius and started lurking over his shoulder on DU that I got an inkling of who did what within the government, what kind of things were being decided, etc. I remember first joining DU and being so overwhelmed with all the new info to learn... glad I stuck around, though. I hope your chat with those girls planted a seed of caring in them.

[Kajsa]

23. You have nothing to be ashamed of, Belladonna.

I go friggin nuts when people give me some lame ass
excuse why they don't vote.

In my family, it was almost considered heresy not
to vote. My stepdad came from Hungary, where elections
were very restricted- one candidate was often all they
had to choose from.

So, I think you were right to tell lil Miss "it's crap"
that she had no right to complain about the state of
our country if she wasn't doing anything about it!

Good for you!

:yourock: