Editor,
I am a left-winger - way left. In fact, I'm so far left that I don't really feel that voting is really up my alley, since no candidates seem to represent what I stand for. It's like offering me the choice between a turkey sandwich or a ham croissant when I'm a vegetarian.
So I was really disappointed with the hypocrisy I witnessed on campus the other day when my boyfriend was approached by a supposedly progressive and open-minded volunteer helping to get people to vote. I think these volunteers provide a great outlet to get students who support the system involved. But since when do these volunteers, simply trying to aid us in making our own decisions, have the right to float over us with an air of superiority when we do something they don't agree with? When my boyfriend was asked if he wanted to register to vote, he said no. As he walked away, this volunteer rudely told him that he should leave the country. Isn't it our right not to vote if we don't support a political system that we feel is a corrupt mockery of democracy?
Just because we choose not to vote doesn't mean we are lazy, apathetic and uninformed citizens. In fact, I'd like to think we are quite the opposite, both very involved with the community and changing the world in our own ways. So why did this girl decide that harassment was necessary and judge someone who didn't have the same beliefs as she did?
Meanwhile, when some religious zealots offered us free Bibles on campus and we said no, rather than judging us and telling us we were going to hell, they genuinely and politely told us to have a nice day.
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Deanna Delgado
UNM student
