The Editorially Independent Voice of The University of Akron

The Buchtelite

The Editorially Independent Voice of The University of Akron

The Buchtelite

The Editorially Independent Voice of The University of Akron

The Buchtelite

Youth vote changes history

“It’s one of those feelings you don’t feel very often. It begins in your stomach, sending shivers up your spine, relaying a feeling of complete happiness that can’t help but bring a smile to your face. As I walked into the early voting center on Tallmadge Avenue last Tuesday to vote early, I couldn’t help but feel it.”

It’s one of those feelings you don’t feel very often. It begins in your stomach, sending shivers up your spine, relaying a feeling of complete happiness that can’t help but bring a smile to your face.

As I walked into the early voting center on Tallmadge Avenue last Tuesday to vote early, I couldn’t help but feel it. I had noticed there weren’t many free parking spaces, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

There was a forty-five minute wait; at least one hundred people were waiting around to vote, and at least a quarter of them were around my age. Waiting to make their voice known, even after being told all their lives their votes don’t really count.

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The sight took my breath away. After hearing the word change in the election so many times, I saw it right there, in a dimly-lit warehouse, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.

And at 11:03 P.M. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, the entire country saw it.

There’s no question about it; this election was rough. About 46 percent of the country wasn’t in a good mood today. But whether or not you believe that Barack Obama is the change you need, look around you.

Talking politics is no longer for old men sitting around with cigars with copies of the New York Times; The University of Akron had a ridiculous number of events and people handing out things. I’m sure you know at least one person who has volunteered for Obama or McCain. Both MSNBC and Fox News admitted that the record 18-24 vote-24 million-signifincantly swung the election in most states.

Our apathetic, technologically witty, self-absorbed, consumeristic, Y generation changed the world on Tuesday. No matter what your party, that’s something to celebrate.

Let the Baby Boomers be remembered for smoking a lot of dope and crying for peace-let Generation X be remembered for tearing down the Berlin wall and discovering technology. We can be remembered for the billions of tears, millions of hugs, thousands of phone calls and hundreds of pages in the history books-also known as the 2008 election that-changed the course of history.

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