The Life Of A Millennial By Jasmine McClain: The Importance of Voting

Meet Jasmine McClain, a 25 year old graduate student for Journalism at Syracuse University. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Recreational Therapy & Physical Education from North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Jasmine was Dance Captain in the NCCU Marching Sound Machine group eClipse in 2013. She describes herself as ‘A Brooklyn native – with a side of southern hospitality’. Very passionate about helping others and giving back to the community, Jasmine enjoys the thrill of reading novels and writing for her blog millennialdiaries.co.

Jasmine hopes one day to curate a women’s magazine for self-improvement. Today, she brings you the first installment of her weekly Spectacular Magazine column entitled “The Life of a Millennial” and it will be precisely that…the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the interests and important issues in “The Life of a Millennial.”

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The Importance of Voting by Jasmine McClain

Midterm elections are HERE. The not-so-funny thing is, a lot of the younger generation have no idea what this means for America, let alone Durham County. The stigma for voting has surprisingly declined since the last presidential election. The millennial generation thinks that voting is not important and votes don’t count.

Well, that is absolutely wrong and we have been misled. What’s interesting is, there is no proof that votes don’t matter. Actually, voting increases the chances of actual change happening in your local community.

In a more simple definition, voting pretty much gives citizens the opportunity to tell the government what we what it to do. Remember all of the injustices we’ve been experiencing and protesting for? What about the rallies that teachers put together each year to demand higher pay for their efforts? This is where voting matters. Our state leaders have the power to change the needs of our community.

During school, we are taught of all of the hardships activists experienced to get to where we are now. We are able to go to ANY school in the world, live in any community and work any job that we’re qualified for. This was not the case 60 years ago. It hasn’t even been 100 years since we’ve gained the RIGHT TO VOTE. Now that we are experiencing a controversial time for politics, voting and having a voice doesn’t seem have the best interest of the millennial generation.

Most feel like all hope is lost for the country. I’ve read things like “our vote won’t change anything” or “I’m not voting but I’ll play a lottery ticket.” How ironic! You’ll pay for something you have a .0005% chance of winning, but you won’t go vote for free. Millennials are the huge group of individuals in the country at over a quarter of the population. We’ve gained a sense of individuality. We would rather like/share and repost when a cop doesn’t get a sentence for killing an unarmed black man, but we won’t go vote for a new judge in our district. Oh the irony.

Could you look your ancestors in the face and tell them that you’re not voting? Would you have the audacity to make a call to the people who fought out of suffrage and tell them “hey, thank you for fighting and risking your life for the future. I just don’t care about my freedom so I’m not going to vote.”

If you can’t, you’re a part of the issue. If you believe that your vote doesn’t matter, why did you go out and vote for Obama? Maybe because your vote did matter, twice! Take a look at your history and evaluate your decision before midterm elections are over. There are amazing people running for office and want to see change happen right here in North Carolina, and more specifically in Durham, North Carolina. It starts with the community.