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Wednesday, November 2, 2016
sdsucollegian.com
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT-RUN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1885
APATHY
is the enemy
Your vote doesn’t count. You don’t like either of the candidates. You don’t feel like you’re educated enough on the issues at stake. Those aren’t valid reasons not to vote. Those reasons are why you should vote. You need to muster up enough will to educate yourself on the issues at stake. You need to choose based on policy decisions you agree with the most. Your vote does count.
So vote. The United States has a poor, if not dismal, voter turnout of 53 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Millennial voter turnout is even worse at 46 percent of people voting during the 2012 election. We, at The Collegian, believe people have taken their right to vote for granted. They’ve become numb to what impact they can have. Those who don’t vote for these reasons are letting apathy take over. They’re the ones who are ruining this election — not Democrats or Republicans, but the ones who say they don’t care.
Apathy is the enemy.
EDITORIAL Issue:
The United States has a dismal voter turnout of 53 percent. Millennial turnout is even worse. No one has the ability to change the election with just one vote. We’re not a direct democracy. But when there are masses of people choosing not to vote for exactly that reason, that changes the election. We, at The Collegian, don’t know when this seed was planted, but the idea that a person’s vote doesn’t matter because it doesn’t have a noticeable impact has grown into an uncontrollable weed that affects our elections. You’re a cotton-headed-ninny-muggins if you don’t vote. Americans have romanticized their vote too much. People start to give too much weight to their own personal beliefs, rather than the policy impact for the future of the United States. The people who choose not to vote because they will only vote for someone they completely agree with are the people who overly romanticize their vote. Yes, we are talking about the “Bernie or Bust” people. Deciding not to vote is like stomping on the American flag. So many people in the history of the United States have fought for their right to vote. But 53 percent of Americans don’t care about that hard-fought right. For women, voting is not their First Amendment right — it’s their 19th Amendment. For African Americans, it’s their 15th Amendment right. For Native Americans, they didn’t even get an Amendment to vote. They got the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
It makes absolutely no sense to care about politics so much then decide to throw a vote away simply because you don’t like either major party candidate. We know they’re not perfect, but you are acting like a child throwing a temper tantrum. You are the toddler intentionally spilling their own milk and crying about it. Specifically with our generation, the Millennial generation, we’re blindly optimistic that everything will turn out alright, even when we don’t vote. Two-thirds of South Dakota Millennials aren’t registered to vote. Almost half of American Millennials aren’t registered to vote. We’ve been babied growing up. Our parents were helicopter parents and made all our decisions for us. Because we grew up like that, we don’t know how to make our own decisions, such as voting, and are scared of “adulting.” So what do we do? We don’t vote. It’ll work itself out then, we think. Because for our entire lives, our parents have managed to make everything work out for us. Despite our lack of enthusiasm in taking part in our civic duty, almost half of Millennials believe the best years are still in the future. Without even taking action, Millennials believe the future is bright and optimistic. Yeah, right. But we, at The Collegian, understand why you’re disenchanted with this election.
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The Collegian staff meets weekly and agrees on the issue of the editorial. The editorial represents the opinion of The Collegian.
SDSU Art Club adds color Storing up for a cause, to downtown with mural one donation at a time BRIANNA SCHREURS Reporter
What once was a dirty, peeling and faded cinderblock wall is now a splash of color in downtown Brookings. The South Dakota State University Art Club is revitalizing a wall on the west side of the Brookings Register Building, bringing vibrancy to the building with a mural of their own design. The gradient, pixel design includes red and black that fades into yellow and blue. The club chose the color scheme to support the two schools in the community. Katie Lee is an Art Club officer and one of the students in charge of the project. “We picked this design because it’s simplistic and engages our knowledge of color theory,” Lee said. “When the colors are finished we’ll put the Brookings logo over top on the corner closest to the street.” Molly Wicks, Art Club adviser, was impressed by the difference made with a little paint. “It’s 10,000 times better than it was,” Wicks said. “We actually love it with the raw wall. So even if we don’t get it finished before winter, it still looks great.” The Art Club members were excited to
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... Helping out and doing my part in painting the mural has been a great experience ... Michael Aasness Senior
see their unfinished mural featured as a background in community members’ pictures on Instagram. Michael Aasness, senior art education major, said the mural is about adding something downtown the community can enjoy. “The painting program here at SDSU has been amazing,” Aasness said. “… Helping out and doing my part in painting the mural has been a great experience, and to be able to share our creative abilities with the people of Brookings is an honor.” The Art Club’s canvas is 17.5 feet high and 48 feet long. Because of the wall’s height, they used a lift to complete the project. The lift is 20 to 30 feet up in the air and a “little rickety,” Lee said. The instability of the lift had some art club members fearing for their lives. “We all joke that we’ve verbally given each other our wills because it freaks us out,” Lee said. “For example one girl requested we take care of her cat, my friend claimed my clothes and purses.” Painting for the mural began on Sept. 26 and will continue until it’s completed. Throughout the project, 25 to 30 volunteers have assisted the Art Club. “We had a ton of people right off the bat, but everyone is busy,” Wicks said. “So I had to make it an assignment … so we could get a little bit further” Wicks said the club had a quick turnaround date in September to get the mural painted so their club could be featured on an MSNBC “Your Business” documentary about small towns. The club gathered quickly to start its mural. While the club received a grant from the city, Wicks wanted to raise money to support a trip to the Minneapolis Art Institute next spring.
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TAYLOR VOEGELE News Editor Departments across campus fought food insecurity by collecting 5,084 items through Pack the Pantry. 13.5 percent of the national population struggles with poverty and hunger and 18.5 percent of Brookings population struggles as well. Staff working in the SDSU Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) and SDSU CETL Advisory Team helped sponsor the Pack the Pantry challenge to keep the shelves at the Harvest Table stocked. The event was started by members of the CETL program to connect facul-
ty members with the community. Kevin Sackreiter, CETL director and assistant professor, said this would be the second annual Pack the Pantry challenge with the Brookings Harvest Table. Trophies are handed out to the winner in three categories: Academic Department, College and Non-Academic Unit. The winner for the academic department category was Chemistry with 1,037 items, the college category was Arts and Science with 3,093 items and the non-academic unit was Facilities and Services with 1,216 items.
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LEXIE PRIEST • The Collegian
Pack the Pantry is a donation drive run by Harvest Table that collects goods to support Brookings community members in need. Baby formula, diapers, and other items are donated in addition to food.