I am a faculty member in the Haile/US Bank College of Business at Northern Kentucky University. This semester, about 160 students troop in and out of my classes everyday as part of their four-year march to earn a degree that will get them a good-paying job. As they listen to the scintillating lectures I deliver on the principles of marketing, they often fiddle with their iPods or cell phones and slug back Mountain Dew and piles of Doritos; their mouths only pausing to accommodate the occasional yawn. I am worried that on November 4th, these tattooed and pierced future business leaders won’t make it to the polls. So, I have crafted a plea. For students. Why I think this will have more impact on their sensibilities than the rousing lecture I just gave on heuristics and psychographics, I don’t know. But I am going to do it anyway. Maybe, I should yell it. Or at least have free pizza passed out while I talk. Anyway, here goes….
Message to Students
November 4th is Election Day and I am reminding you to go to the polls, stand in the long lines and VOTE.
The United States is only 232 years old but it is the longest running experiment in democracy the world has ever seen. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and Adams crafted our “more perfect union” in the cold glare of tyranny. And in our short 200+ years, millions of Americans have struggled and marched and fought to keep this democracy alive. And many gave their lives.
Revolutionary Americans died at Lexington and Concord, at Valley Forge and Bunker Hill. Civil War era Americans died to keep a fragile union from destruction at Appomattox, at Shiloh and Antietam. Antietam…where more than 22,000 Americans died in the space of one afternoon—the largest loss of humanity in one battle in history—ever. And more Americans died defending our freedom in Flanders fields, on the beaches of Normandy, in the jungles of Vietnam and in the desert of Iraq.
These Americans paid the ultimate price so that democracy could prevail and freedom could flourish. They have left us a legacy of liberty and justice…and obligation. An obligation to see that this great experiment does not fail. They left us the ability to guide it, to nurture it and to strengthen it with our votes.
I am more than 30 years older than most of you. This election isn’t about my future; it’s about yours. Take the time to go to the polls and stand in line and wait your turn to vote. And when your back aches and your feet hurt, feel the strength and sacrifice of all the Americans who have come before you… you will be standing on their shoulders.
I’ll see you in class next time.
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