In this section I will speak on different subject that touch my life. As I journalist, I have to stay objective but this is one place where I won't.

"I have the freedom not to vote, so I'm not..."

It was almost time for me to clock in for work, but I needed to wait a few minutes. The Ohio State University doesn't want to pay people extra money for time they are not supposed to work. The debate between President Bush and Senator John Kerry had gone off almost an hour ago and I had missed the majority of it because of rehearsal. I brought it up as a topic and we spoke briefly about it. One of the guys who is new this year, but I have known since last year said that he didn't know who he was going to vote for, so he had decided not to vote at all. He tried to justify himself and say that an ignorant voter is just as bad as not voting at all. He admitted to not knowing everything about the two candidates and because of that, he would abstaining from the voting process. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I asked him why, instead of not voting, didn't he just educate himself on the politics and he said he didn't have time. I walked away from him very angry and very surprised by that anger.

It was strange because my roommate and I had just got finished talking about ignorant voters. I told him that I hated the fact that people will sit around and not know anything about who they are voting for. That they are just willing to elect people who may not do a thing for them, but since they didn't have a problem with them before, they are going to vote for them. Hell, if that was the case, even I would vote for Bush, but I'm not.

I take voting very seriously, not only because I am an American, but because I am Black. I think it is the saddest thing in the world that Black people don't get out and vote after people suffered and even died just to get that right. Their struggle alone doesn't just make me want to vote, it almost forces me. I have that same policy with the word "Nigga" but that is a tangent. As a Black man, I have to vote. But on a broader scale, I am an American. There are so many people out there who have no choice in how they live. We do and yet, people don't take that gift and utilize it.

The first problem I had with what the guy said was that he didn't even take time to educate himself on the candidates. What is wrong with this picture? One of these two people will be in charge of the most powerful country in the world and yet, he and people like him feel like it is just okay to not know these people on any level. And it's not as though it is hard. A person doesn't exactly have to take a class or seminar on it. I, myself, spend about 10 minutes a day just reading stories online for free. I don't even have to pick up a paper and pay money and neither does anyone else. Websites like Yahoo! even give people a chart of issues that people can explore and see the candidates' stance on everything. So with all this information out there, how is that excuse even valid.

It upsets me that with everything that is going on, people feel like they can just opt out of voting. Like it will not make a difference in their lives. Even if I felt like this election would be nothing to how I live, I would at least think about others. People will be effected by how you vote. Yes, you have the freedom and the choice not to vote, but does that make not voting right? No.