by Dustin Taylor
Daily Lobo guest columnist
Today is election day, and UNM students are making last-minute decisions about their presidential options. Much like the rest of America, we are concerned about the issues that dominate the national debate, including Iraq and health care. We are also looking for a candidate who speaks to our particular concerns, who can talk with equal passion and insight about war and health care as he can about student loans and genocide. And, most importantly, students are looking for a candidate who can talk about tomorrow as well as today.
On both measures, I have found my candidate in Sen. Barack Obama. At a college rally just before he declared his candidacy, Obama reminded a packed room of students of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." He challenged students to "grab that arc" and to work to set America on the right path once more. On campuses across the country, students have risen to Obama's challenge, building a grassroots movement of historic proportions to elect the president our country deserves.
Obama knows every student in this country should be able to attend college without worrying about graduating under a burden of crippling debt. One indication of his commitment to students is the fact that the first bill he introduced in the Senate was legislation to expand the Federal Pell Grant Program. Obama will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans and will cover two-thirds of the cost of tuition at the average public college or university. He has shown a nuanced understanding of the issue of access to higher education in this country, and he has proposed to reform corrupt lending institutions that bankrupt all too many students trying to get an education.
Obama has shown that he has the vision and the judgment to lead. Students are rallying behind him as the only candidate who opposed the war in Iraq from the start, before it was popular or politically expedient to do so. He has been a leading voice in Washington on the Darfur genocide, traveling to the region to raise awareness and getting legislation signed into law to increase funding to work to end the bloodshed there.
With his strong and clear voice on the issues, it's no wonder students were among the first to "grab that arc" and to bend it in the direction of justice. In summer 2006, a group of students founded Students for Barack Obama as a grassroots movement to elect him. Since then, the organization has grown into one of the largest grassroots organizations in modern political history, with more than 600 chapters and thousands of members on campuses nationwide.
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Here at UNM, we have students mobilizing across campus. Students are grabbing that arc to bend in the direction of justice by having their voices heard at the polls. I have personally registered over 180 voters in the last five days I've been on campus. Although these students will not vote today, it is a testament to Obama's ability to attract voters to the democratic process. Also, Students for Barack Obama has had the help of Republican students in the daily function of our booth in the SUB. This is an excellent example of Barack Obama's broad appeal to all demographics of the political spectrum.
Students can get involved by going to the New Mexico Obama headquarters at 1014 Lomas Blvd. N.W. and most importantly by voting today.
To find your polling station, go to NewMexico.BarackObama.com.
Dustin Taylor is head of New Mexico Students for Barack Obama.
