By Roslyn Ryan
Editor

If you’re around my age or older, you’ve probably seen the teen-angst classic The Breakfast Club, and recall the scene in which the always-in-trouble-high-school kid asks the squeaky-clean-straight-A kid why on Earth he has a fake ID in his wallet.

“Duh,” says Straight A. “It’s so I can vote.”

The scene is funny, but the reason it’s funny is somewhat sad: of all the things young people get jazzed about, reaching voting age has not traditionally been one of them.

That’s why it’s been so heartening to see the surge in young people registering to vote in recent months. There’s always been at least a small group of young people who were educated about the issues, who knew how important it was to be a part of the political process, but now that enthusiasm seems to be spreading.

If you are around my age, someday your children are going to ask you what you remember about these days, the same way we ask our parents and grandparents about the times they lived in. Your children are going to ask what you were doing back then, what the mood in your hometown was like, and what people were saying. Perhaps they will ask if you knew you were witnessing history.

The one thing I will not want to tell them is that I did nothing. I saw the signs, I heard the speeches, and I sat on the sidelines and waited for the final score to flash across the screen.

If you don’t think it’s your civic duty to vote, or the debt you owe so many millions who have died for that right, who am I to argue with you?

But I do know you don’t get many opportunities to play a role in a historic event such as this election, and I don’t want to have to look someone in the eye 30 years from now and say that I was not concerned enough, or just too busy, to be a part of it.