The Importance of Voting

Getting Your Voice Across

By Laura Peters petersle@vcu.edu

With the upcoming election many registered voters are debating whether or not to go to the polls. Citizens think that their vote won’t count no matter how they vote, and many think it all depends on the Electoral College.

“Whether you voted dozens of times or your first time this is one of the most important [elections],” says Jared Leopold, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia. “That’s why it’s so important for Virginia to vote.”

First, you need to consider the importance of voting. In our history many Americans were not born with the right to vote, and if the legislation was still intact from back then, the only people who could vote would be white land owners, which rule out a vast majority, especially college students, African Americans, and women. It only came to be in 1870, with the Fifteenth Amendment, that African Americans had the right to vote. Even then they were widely discriminated against with poll taxes and literacy tests. It wasn’t until 1920 that women were secured the right to vote, which is only about 90 years ago.

Voting is a great way to have your voice heard. Many countries have fought for the right to vote and others are still fighting to have their voice heard. It’s a privilege that many people around the world don’t have.

“We have different people on campus, people coming out and knocking on doors,” says Leopold. “We expect Virginia to be very, very close this year and every single vote counts.”

“It’s really important because for a lot of us this is our first election, I mean why miss it?” says Katie Rivara, a volunteer for the Obama Campaign in Richmond and Education major at VCU. “And for women especially, we haven’t even been doing this for a hundred years, and you can’t let this chance pass us by.”

She voted for the first time on Saturday, using her absentee ballot, saying, “It was exciting, I got kind of giddy!”

This election is being recognized as the year that the younger generation will make the difference. In four years college students will most likely be graduating, or already in the real world playing some part in society. It’s a big deal to be a part of something that would directly influence your future. By voting, you’re electing a president that you think will do the best for you, and by voting for that candidate, it makes them one step closer to carrying out ideas that will benefit you.

James Watkinson, a History professor at VCU says, “There are very few times in a person’s life he gets to express him or herself and have it count in regards to our government.”

People also complain a lot about what is going on in politics, saying how the government should fix our problems. But, you really don’t have any right to complain if you don’t partake in the process. By voting, you voice your opinion on who you think can fix the problems that trouble you. If you haven’t voted, then you shouldn’t complain about problems. Voting is one way to fix those problems.

“People who think that it doesn’t count haven’t heard about the 1960 election,” says Watkinson. “Where one vote change in each precinct in the country made the difference, just one vote…Richard Nixon would have been president 8 years sooner than he was.”

“I’ve always thought that it was important, it was my right and my duty and I’ve voted when I first got the chance,” states Watkinson. In regards to how historic this election is he says, “It’s a referendum on how far America has come, someone is going to be in a position of power that’s never been then before, so it’s absolutely historical, in that regard it’s probably one of the more important elections we’ve had in the last hundred years.”

Another huge dilemma in voting is if your vote really counts. Most think that it doesn’t count and it’s just a bunch of old men sitting in the Electoral College make the decision for us.

The way the Electoral College works is this, when you cast you vote on the ballot you are essentially voting for an elector when voting for president. Those electors have pledged to cast their votes for a certain presidential candidate. In Virginia the Electoral College uses the method of “winner-takes-all” meaning that whatever elector gets the most votes that presidential candidate wins.

To give an example; say you’re going to the polls and you vote for Candidate A. By voting for Candidate A you are actually voting for Elector A. The more people who vote for Candidate A the more votes go towards Elector A and the same if it were for Candidate B. So the more votes you make for Candidate A, the more of a chance Elector A will make the final vote for Candidate A.
Virginia has 13 electors based on population, each chosen by their party and they have never held an elected office before, like Senate or House, and so on. In some states you are allowed to vote from a selection of electors, by having their names on the ballot, who therein vote for president. The process of using the Electoral College is called an indirect election where the citizens elect people to make the decision of who will be president for them.

Jacob Epstein, an Urban Planning and Geography major at VCU, voted a month and a half ago through absentee has already voiced his opinion.

“I don’t think anything’s really going to change unless both Congress and the President are Democratic,” Says Epstein. “So, it’s important to vote for your senator.” Epstein thinks that people should “go out and do something, show that you care, and voice your opinion.”

If you are unable to make it to you voting destination, for example you go to school in a different city than you are registered in, there is still time to make your voice heard. The mail in deadline has already passed, but you can also present your absentee ballot to your voting district by November 1st. If you’ve already sent in your ballot and are afraid it got lost, damaged, or destroyed than you can go to www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/ and click My Absentee Ballot Status and it tells you when it arrived. This site also tells you where you vote if you are not sure of your voting precinct by clicking on Where Do I Vote in Virginia.

Despite Electoral College and the supposed hassle of voting, it’s an easy thing to do, and such a privilege. Just go to the polls and vote the way you want because we are the United States of America and we’ve earned the right to be heard.

Southern Hospitality

This article is an opinion piece about the manners that people have in our country. It mainly focuses on how it has been a different experience to live in Northern Virginia and then moving to Richmond.

http://media.www.commonwealthtimes.com/media/storage/paper634/news/2008/09/29/Opinion/Southern.Hospitality-3458105.shtml

Rainbows, Suicide and Women

February 18, 2008

Art in motion is the only way to describe the recent production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” by Virginia Commonwealth University Theatre Department.

“It’s a work of art come to life,” says freshman Carla Joseph, a theatre performance major at VCU and the ticket collector for the show. She said audience members should expect a “broad perspective of lives” with each one telling their story.

Stepping into Hodges Theatre in the Performing Arts Building located on Park Ave the set seems to have a life of its own. The drapes are highlighted with different colored lights to set the mood, and the stage was hand crafted with different levels, and a circular abstract setup.

Before the show began the audience was treated to music from the 60s and 70s, including Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” which many audience members sang along with. The audience was alive and ready to be entertained and interact with the show.

The play, by Ntozake Shange, is about the journeys of colored women and their struggles to find out who they are and what their purpose in life is. The progression starts with a girl, 16, in 1955 in St. Louis and follows her all the way to womanhood.

“In general, a really good show…unique,” says freshman Joey Reynolds, a lighting design major at VCU.

A total of thirteen girls dance and sing on stage, and tell their stories. They bring up issues like abortion, abuse, and heartbreak, resulting in a show that any woman can relate to.

The Lady in Purple, played by junior Felisha Barnes, tells of being raped, and feeling too ashamed to tell anyone. She invited a man into her house for dinner, into her territory. The night went wrong and he raped her, and couldn’t explain that to anyone.

The Lady in Blue, played by junior Olisa Enrico, tells how you can’t take away her memories of her life. They are her memories and she remembers them they way they were, and no one can take that from her.

The journeys of these women are uplifting and every girl who sees this show can see themselves in these people and are given a message by their acting on the stage.

With so many shows going on around campus, most students don’t even know about them. They spend time placing flyers everywhere around campus, but most students don’t realize that they are there.

According to Cyndi Wontrop, a freshman light-design major who worked on the show, the advertising aspect of all shows needs work. They have posters all around campus and the VCU TelegRams announce the upcoming shows, but not many students read them. VCU Theatre has a really good reputation and many members of the community come to the shows, according to Wontrop.

Wontrop enjoys being part of the productions at VCU. With her major she is required to do something for each production that is put on. She has no free time during the productions and doesn’t see much of the outside of the theatre. But she enjoys her job as the spot light operator on the show. She was also an electrician for the show and hung and focused most of the lights.

The show ran from February 15^th through 24^th. But, starting on April 10^th, VCU Theatre will be performing their big spring musical, Cabaret. Go out and support VCU Theatre!

A Neighborly Tale

February 18, 2008

As I enter Sarah Richards’s apartment she’s eats cheese off of a knife. This isn’t the only time I’ve seen her eating cheese off of a knife, she claims she’s just too lazy to cut it up and put it on a plate; that creates dishes.

Richards lives in an apartment that could have come straight out of a Martha Stewart catalogue. Everything matches with hints of character in the antique lady lamps on either side of the living room. It’s even painted to match.

Since transferring from Virginia Tech at the beginning of the year, she has striven to find a meaning in art. She is an Architectural History major, and hopes to preserve history by restoring historical buildings and houses.

“I want to do something that actually has a real world application,” Richards said.

She originally applied to the Art Foundation program at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2005 but took one look at Richmond and hated it.

“This is the ugliest place I’ve ever been in my entire life, I thought it was really ghetto and really scary,” Richards said.

“I had like eight majors and I originally wanted to do Interior Design but my parents said that was for stupid people, so I became an Art History major at Tech,” Richards said. “I really hated how analytical it was like I thought I was going to be looking at art but instead I was looking at people’s opinions of art.”

After being a Virginia Tech for two years, the boredom caught up with her so she gave Richmond another chance. She thrives on history, and Richmond is filled with it.

“Seriously for fun, we went to Barnes and Noble,” Richards said.

The terrifying events that happened at Virginia Tech last spring made Richards less willing to come to VCU.

“It was hard to think about leaving [Tech] after all that happened,” she said. “Nobody ever imagined something like that ever happening at Virginia Tech. When I say it was picturesque, it was like Pleasantville over there…Everything’s perfect all the time.”

Richards knew two people who died, Leslie Sherman and Jaclyn Couture’nowak, her French teacher. Her friend Kevin Sterne was shot, but survived and still has part of the bullet in his leg holding his bone together.

Even with her past experiences at Virginia Tech, Richards still plans on making Richmond her home. It’s especially hard the anniversary of the events coming up on April 16^th. She even hopes to continue her education in graduate school at VCU after graduating a semester early at the age of twenty-one in the fall.

Leesburg Today Articles

This article is about a new church that was built in Purcellville, Virginia and how the land it was placed on is where they held Emanicipation Day celebrations. The church decided that they would hold a celebration for Emanicipation Day and invite the whole community. It's a celebration of history in which marks the day the Emanicipation Proclamation was signed.

• http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2006/09/25/news/towns_and_villages/tv98emancipation092206.txt

This article is about an organization called Liberty's Promise that helps young immigrants that have just moved to the area get more involved. The organization is a non-profit and offers placement of immigrants into internships or other business opportunities as well as educational opportunities.

• http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2006/09/19/news/leesburg/lb55liberty091506.txt

• Park & Ride: Philip Bolen Park Location Stirs up Controversy
  By Laura Peters
  Correspondent
  
  The approved Park & Ride location at Philip Bolen Memorial Park is not a good option, according to Councilman Ken Reid who has been encouraging his fellow council members for several weeks to look for other sites.
  
  To access the Bolen Park lot, commuters would use Sycolin Road, which is already burdened with local traffic. Reid said the location is inconvenient and less efficient then other potential sites because access is so limited.
  
  A temporary Park & Ride lot is currently located at the former Barber and Ross site off Catoctin Circle. The Leesburg Town Council approved a special exception in April 2005 to allow a park and ride lot at this site for two years. Current property owners Mitchell and Best Homebuilders approved the temporary use. The contract, which cannot be extended, expires next April.
  
  Nancy Gourley is transit division manager for Loudoun County and oversees the commuter bus program. The Bolen Park site is divided into two phases, the first of which includes 400 spaces, Gourley said. A design contract has been awarded for phase one, she said, and work should be completed by the fall of 2007.
  
  To fill the time gap between the Barber and Ross’ lot contract expiration in April 2007 and the Bolen Park’s lot expected opening in the fall, Gourley said she will attend the Sept. 25 Town Council work session to discuss extension options. Because the contract for use of the Barber and Ross can’t be extended, Gourley said she needs to find another way to prolong the use.
  
  According to Reid, Bolen Park is a last resort. Reid finds it hard to believe that the town of Leesburg, the council members and the Board of Supervisors have not found a location within town corporate limits while the towns of Purcellville and Hamilton have.
  
  Reid said elected officials haven’t shown any leadership to find a good location. Since transit is significant to the majority of Loudoun County residents, Reid said there should be more leadership in such a big decision.
  
  Councilwoman Katie Sheldon Hammler raised the concern about the timing of the lights at the intersection of Sycolin Road and the Leesburg Bypass, saying it takes many cycles to get through.
  
  At the Barber and Ross site 365 spaces are available for parking and about 300 of them are filled each day, Gourley said. The first phase at Bolen Park gives 400 spaces, the second phase, which will add an additional 300 spaces cannot be built until Sycolin Road is improved.
  
  Reid describes commuting as a grueling and extensive activity, to have the new location off Sycolin Road would only cause more traffic and delay, he said.

Old High School Articles

I was looking through my computer and found a bunch of my articles from my column back in high school. I really got a kick out of them so I'd figure I'd post them.

A Cranky Corner Carol

by Laura Peters Raider Staff

Fa la la la la la la la… and all that rubage.

The holiday cheer is all around in expensive gifts on little children’s lists. Department stores sales with not only ten but twenty percent off…EVERYTHING!

Have you got the spirit? The spirit to compete with your friends for the better present. To gather around you family spitting out carols, loving one another and then leaving as soon as you get your gifts.

The season of giving…love? Scrooge says it’s not, but to get out that mindset, you have to see the holidays from all different angles.

Commercialism has hit an all time high around the same time every year. It’s just coincidence hitting that high during the holiday season (everyone just wants to give).

New Years cheer and resolutions appear. Every brand new year it’s the same thing, “I want to lose ten pounds…that’s my resolution.” Or “I’m going to forget about Bobby, who dumped me five months ago…I’m really moving on…”

There’s nothing like the holiday season like food, A Muppet’s Christmas Carol, and the rotation of Star Wars over and over on Christmas day.

I’m not one for the glee of the holidays, but I do enjoy certain songs, dashing through the snow and seeing mommy kissing Santa Clause. Sleigh rides, silver bells, and even Grandma getting run over by a reindeer are all time favorites.

Tradition is key. Let it be a turkey or ham in the oven or putting garland on your tree instead of candy canes. Lighting the menorah or the kinara.

It doesn’t matter what you celebrate; it’s celebrating it that keeps the tradition alive.

Once school is back in session, new outfits will deck the halls, the latest mini-micro-maca-whatever I-pod will be stuck in many ears, and cars with bows may fill the parking lot with cheer.

To all have a very Merry-Happy Chrismakwanzaka! And a great New Years!

Love is for Losers…This is Cranky to the EXTREME!

by Laura Peters Raider Staff

Love, love, love…

All you need is love.

Every February 14th the power of love is skyrocketed. It’s plain and simple…a greeting card holiday.

It’s an excuse for girlfriends to get overly upset at their boyfriends because of their lack of consideration on that special day of “love”.

Do you know where the whole Valentine’s Day originates? Okay, okay…so it isn’t entirely the greeting card Corporation.

The legend of Saint Valentine was that he was a priest in the third century in Rome. Now, Valentine was angry with the Emperor Claudius II when he outlawed marriage for younger men, so he could have more soldiers to fight and be apart of his army. Valentine was so enraged, he continued to perform marriages even after the Emperor’s ruling.

Due to the defiance of his emperor, Valentine was sent to jail. It is said that in jail he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and wrote her a letter before his death signing it “From your Valentine” giving everyone that expression in present day.

So, basically, Valentine’s Day can be romantic. The basis around it in this light, over Saint Valentine’s death, can be viewed as heroic and very much romantic. But, then again this is America, it’s all about the goods.

Laura’s Cranky Corner

by Laura Peters Raider Staff

Do you ever have that feeling where someone is telling you a story, they build it completely up, and you’re totally psyched about it, only to be let down by the fact that it completely sucked and had no significance to your life, what-so-ever. And then you realize, you never get those thirty-plus minutes back in your life that you just wasted on listening to that person, or even reading this article.

That’s the theme of my high school existence, but not to put a downfall on this school or anything. I’m just so blank and worn out from high school drama, and stupid situations. We’re all ready to move on, and grow up. Which is practically impossible to do in a prison-like campus, where we’re treated like inmates when we don’t have a pass to go to the water fountain.

Deadlines are pushing me to write this one. But the only deadline that I’m facing now is to my freedom; Graduation.

I can feel, see, and imagine it now, walking across that stage, with the gleaming sunlight beaming onto my pale skin, making my freckles darker. I’ve been waiting for that moment since I first entered these halls.

The halls that shone so brightly from the first waxing of the school year, only to be scuffed up the next day and turned into a matte finished that soon fades into a unnoticeable floor that you walk on to go to you seventh period class.

Awkward phases that you never really grow out of, they grow out of you. Bumming rides due to the fact that you have no license and your big brother decides to leave you at school.

Times when homecoming was sort of cool, in your own alternative way. With boas, homemade dresses, and amazing up-do’s. Pancake dinners and after parties.

That feeling of freedom with the wind in your hair with all the windows down in YOUR car, even though it’s your parent’s car, but it’s yours because you’re driving it alone. Music blasting, and zooming around seemingly cool in the school parking lot.

The thrill of winning, the happiness of succeeding, the defeat of failing. The ups and downs of high school seem to be a rollercoaster, but that’s the intensity you look forward to each day, even if you don’t want to admit it to yourself.

Study halls filled with no talking for the fear of getting in trouble, back when the rules were enforced so harshly, only to be let down as the years pass, and then to be replaced by a useless “FLEX” period, that causes more hassle than help.

Last minute projects in attempt to get the seniors more involved with the schoolwork, then realizing that they don’t care, and senioritis has hit an all time high, and everyone is infected. It’s useless. The summer is already here for half of us. We’re practically free.

I feel your pain, for all you underclassmen, as I rant on about the feelings of a senior. We’ve all been there, we know exactly how you’re feeling. You’ll get out soon enough, and have the same feelings as I do now.

Growing, as this article is, is like a timeline. Retracing and remembering your steps is the fun part. Thinking of past experiences, when times seemed to be so hard and unbearable, only now were clearly easy and practically no big deal at all.

With new additions to the school, come great losses. The weathered faces of maturing adults will soon be replaced with different ones. The same repeating process over and over, until the end of time. With ever new generation you see new sparks, different in every way. Just realize that as you grow up, things may be hard and challenging but, that’s the fun of it. Like a winding road with unexpected turns of the life ahead of you.

Laura’s Cranky Corner

by Laura Peters Raider Staff

Senior year…supposedly the best year of your life. You’re moving on, getting ready start your life and enter a new chapter. Everything is supposed to be big, great, and grand.

Or, not. You’re life is now a big confusing mess of college essays and applications galore. It’s one thing after the next of what you want to study, where you want to go. And here’s the catch, you must decide right now.

Many people may disagree with my last statement, saying you don’t need to decide right away but, then again, isn’t college pointless if you don’t have a set idea in your mind of what you want to accomplish? It’s like taking all your life’s earnings and flushing them down the toilet.

Here’s an idea. Maybe somewhat uplifting. No one knows what they want. As much as some people want to have it set in their mind of what they want to do, everyone is just as confused and freaked out by the life ahead of them. Succumb to your fears everyone! We are all in this together. We are not alone!

High school to me is childish. I’ve finished what I need to accomplish here, my brain is done consuming all that it needs to consume as of now. I can’t gather any more information, and if I do I am going to lose it.

All that high school really is is just a popularity contest. Everyone has their little clicks and friends that they have had forever, and once you’re in that group you stay in it, and there is a members only policy.

One thing I have realized is that this year alone, more people have talked to me. Maybe it’s because I have some growth coming out of the side of my head or a booger hanging out of my nose, but the real true people have come to the same realization that I have discovered; I will never see these people ever again, I might as well make the best of it.

Not to put a damper on you’re last year of high school with a depressing note, but I’m speaking my mind. The truth is, that the people you know in high school, you will most likely never speak to again, besides those in which you plan on keeping a good connection with. That’s life, we all are moving on.

Senior year…the best year of your life? No, not for me, maybe the most frustrating year that I have ever had to endure. But, I could say that about my entire high school existence. I’m not going to lie, but I hate going around in school pretending that I really care about it. I don’t. I’m sick and tired of it all. I want to leave and start something new. I’m eighteen, partially legal, and I’m drained of everything.

Is it just me or do you ever just get in your car and drive? Just, no place in mind of where you’re going, just drive. A continuous drive that ends nowhere and starts in the same place. That’s where I feel right now, a figure eight of continuum that will never extinguish. As of now, I’m trying to find my tangent…where’s yours?