By Kristin Silvia
This month, a long-term, anti-bullying commercial campaign was launched across the country. Once considered an unfortunate but unavoidable rite of passage, bullying has come under increasing scrutiny since a series of highly publicized suicides by high school students who were revealed to have been victims of bullies in the months leading up to their deaths.
Democratic and Republican anti-bullying policies, among other social issues, are expected to play an important role in the outcome of the presidential election this November. Young voters, who have a historically low turn out, are still hoping for the change they clamored for four years ago.
The problem is that young people don't have the same hope that their expectations being realized. Rather than learning about the major parties' plans for action in the coming years, voters are assailed with mudslinging, sensationalized politics. The same politicians who are being asked to legislate anti-bullying policy to protect our students are refusing to cooperate with political parties with different opinions than their own.
What this country needs is someone in a position of power who can inspire compromise and respect opposition even when it doesn’t respect him. We need a president who believes in the anti-bullying campaign he's advertising. But regardless of who you vote for this November, do vote: maybe your individual vote doesn't seem like it makes a significant impact, but it let's the folks in Washington know where you stand on certain issues--and if they want to get reelected, they'll listen to that. You just have to make them.
