Arshad Hasan: An invitation

Our generation has been written off as lazy, self-absorbed and apathetic. But given that our generation volunteers at higher levels than any generation before us, this characterization is unfair.

Despite this devotion to civic service, too many of us fail to see the connection between serving our communities and participating in the political process. Why should young people care about politics? Why don't politicians seem to care about young people?

Look at the numbers. People between the ages of 18 and 35, make up 24 percent of the population, but only 17 percent of registered voters. Worse, those of us who are registered are less likely to vote than the rest of the registered population.

If politics is about making your voice heard over the fray, our generation is barely making a sound. Almost a third of us who are registered do not exercise this right.

Medicare and Social Security are big issues not simply because they are pressing problems, but because they are pressing problems that affect a demographic -- age 65 and older --that is registered at 79 percent. Barely more than 50 percent of young people are registered.

When young people sit quietly instead of standing up and being heard, the nation is robbed of some of its most dynamic voices. Our age group is known as the most tolerant and open minded in American history. When asked questions about discrimination and harassment, ours is the generation that demands most assertively that all people, regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, be treated with fairness and dignity.

For example, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would grant protections from job discrimination to gays and lesbians similar to those granted to protected groups in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, has been introduced in Congress almost every year since 1994. This bill has broad support nationally, but that support is especially strong among our generation.

Unfortunately, a great many of these tolerant voices are the same that "just don't have time" to vote. Politicians see the poll numbers indicating tolerance but understand that those supporters won't hold them as accountable as people who might be less tolerant. As a result, the bill has failed every time, and in most of America, including Pennsylvania, it is still legal to fire a person based on real or perceived sexual orientation.

Occasionally, our generation's voice does rise above the fray. Tammy Baldwin, a woman from a largely rural area of Wisconsin, made national headlines by winning a hard-fought congressional election in 2000. But the district includes one of the most politically active college campuses in America.

Normally dismissed as an unreliable and irregular pool of part-time volunteers, college students are usually given campaign grunt work organized and supervised without any input from the student. But the student body at the University of Wisconsin at Madison is famed for its activism, and its Baldwin volunteers have turned into a political case study for the textbooks.

Hundreds of Madison students worked for Baldwin, registering new voters, driving people to the polls and discussing the issues. Thousands of students waited hours in lines to vote. Ultimately, Tammy Baldwin was, against all odds, elected to Congress. The students at Madison also defied expectations and put a friend in Washington who will never forget their efforts.

Although Penn is not quite that hotbed of political activity, we can not ignore the sense of civic responsibility many of us have felt recently. After Sept. 11, many of us donated our time and money, or just attended services to grieve or reflect.

We did it for ourselves and for the country. If we can stand in line for hours to give blood, we can certainly register to vote. It's time to let the country know what this generation has to say.

Make them listen. Register to vote.

Arshad Hasan is a senior Political Science major from Grand Forks, N.D., and president of the Penn College Democrats.

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