Stop whining.

If you are planning not to vote or care about the upcoming presidential election, I could care less about what you think is wrong with the world or this nation.

As November gets closer and the presidential candidates get fewer, I am shocked at how many people still do not care about the future.

Young voters are showing up in record numbers for the primaries, yet there is a counter population who threatens to ruin their efforts.

I am sure you’ve met an “anti-voter.”

They are the ultimate pessimists who declare the corruption of every politician and political party. They constantly argue one vote could never make a difference in a nation of millions. They support a candidate who doesn’t have a chance and lose interest with the presidency after their candidate predictably drops out of the race.

I cannot explain how frustrated these people make me. Actually, I’ll go beyond frustrated. They downright annoy me.

Anti-voters believe they are some type of revolutionary. Instead of focusing their energy on finding a candidate with an agenda closest to theirs, they would rather vote for no one at all.

They think by not voting, they are sticking it to the man.

If they are sticking it to anyone, it is themselves.

Refusing to vote gives unofficial permission for politicians to pay no attention to what constituents want. If a group of people with specific beliefs refuses to go to the polls, why would anyone care what they have to say?

You want things to change?

Start petitions. Join a protest. Contact your representatives.

Find a candidate who believes in progress, and get him or her into office.

That’s how you make change.

While you’re playing Rock Band or watching MTV, your peers are dying in a war.

It’s not good enough anymore to sit around and talk about how much you hate big government. The world is really happening, and you don’t have the right to do nothing about it.

Even if you didn’t like George W. Bush or John Kerry, one of them still took office. If you can’t look at that election and feel remorse if you didn’t vote, I do not think I can convince you otherwise.

Some of my friends call me an idealist for always having hope things can get better.

If being an idealist means believing and fighting for change, I will take the title.

Change is a slow process, but with the persistence of active citizens, especially voters, policies and practices can make a turn for the better.

As cliché as it sounds, voting really is power. It is a symbolic representation of democracy and honoring the freedoms that we as Americans so often take for granted.

I can cast a vote without fearing for my life or taking a literacy test, and if I take that vote for granted, I don’t deserve it.

Marchaé Grair is a sophomore electronic media production major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].