Apathy foils America’s voting system
by Bernie Scheffler, editor-in-chief

    Winona Ryder fans all over the country are in emotional crisis; their precious starlet was found guilty of shoplifting by a Los Angeles jury last week.

   But why do we really care?

   Why was this trivial story making waves on CNN just one night after an American election that looks like it will make waves in history books? Ryder probably won’t even spend any time (or at least not very much time) in jail.

   Actually, I think CNN had a good reason for throwing in some Winona coverage.

   Apparently, most of America would prefer some good, old-fashioned celebrity gossip to any real news.

   The two-thirds of registered voters who didn’t even bother to cast their votes Nov. 5 obviously don’t care about those election results.

   Not enough to try and do something about it, anyway.

   Think about this: only about one-third of all registered voters cast a ballot in this year’s election.

   Now, factor in the number (and it’s not a small number) of American citizens who aren’t even registered to vote.

   It is very possible that less than 25 percent of Americans are determining who runs our nation.

   If only 25 percent of Americans were allowed to vote, there would be cries of revolution against an oppressive government.

   However, since we consider our suffrage a right, instead of the privilege it is, voter apathy is rampant.

   Unless more voters start paying attention to the way government operates and spending a little less time watching the latest celebrity trial on Court TV, apathetic voters are going to continue to cheat America out of real elections.

   By real elections, I mean those with a result that reflects the will of a majority of Americans.

   In a democracy, all citizens have a voice—their vote.

   But when such a great number of people choose not to exercise their voices, the system naturally breaks down.

   Who knows which party would be controlling the nation’s government if the other 66 percent of registered voters had exercised their voices?