The Student Government sponsored “Rock the Vote” event kicked off this week with special appearances by Congressmen John Dingell and Hansen Clarke on Thursday afternoon. Both congressmen gave rousing speeches to a large crowd of students on why it’s important to not only register to vote, but to actually get out and vote on Election Day.
Congressman John Conyers canceled his appearance without giving a reason and the representative from Debbie Stabenow’s office, Sarah Curmi, canceled her appearance after arriving saying she was not authorized to speak with media present.
Throughout the day members of Student Government helped students register to vote.
According to Ryan Todd, a senator of the Student Government, more than 100 people had registered to vote, though Student Government is hoping to register many more in the weeks ahead.
Dingell said Eastern Michigan University produces some extraordinary people in its Student Government and encouraged students to vote in the upcoming student elections.
“Voting is the greatest right we have as citizens,” Congressman John Dingell (D) said. “When you vote, you are voting for your future.”
Dingell, who is currently serving his 57th year as a member of congress, said young people, like EMU students, are “25 percent of the population in the United States but 100 percent of the future.”
That 25 percent of the vote that students represent has been the deciding factor in many close election races from Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson in 1804, to the 1960 election race between John F. Kennedy and Richard
Nixon, and even the more recent 2000 election race between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
As Congressman Dingell pointed out, these statistics show how important it is for young people and college students to vote.
Dingell reminded his listeners that there was a time, not too long ago, when many Americans couldn’t vote or
faced barriers to voting because of their gender, race, national origin, religion or economic status. The fight for the right to vote that so many Americans fought and even died for can be honored by everyone by the simple,
but powerful act of voting.
“Countries where people don’t vote or don’t have the right to vote become dictatorships,” Dingell said.
There are many examples in the world today of countries where people don’t have the right to decide how to live their lives, what laws to pass, what kind of education to get, how many kids they can have nor the freedom to expression their opinions.
Clarke said his father, who is Indian, immigrated to the United States to have the freedoms we enjoy as citizens.
“The right to vote is so important,” stressed Clarke to his audience, “my dad risked everything to come to this country so he could vote.”
He said the people of the U.S. have the power to change the system and can exercise that power by voting.
“The power is with you, not with me,” Clarke said. “The power is in the hands of the people and it must always be that way.”
According to Clarke, change comes from the citizens when they vote on the laws and the people they elect to make those laws.
During the Q-and-A session, a student asked Dingell how it felt to see a healthcare reform bill that both he and his father, John Dingell Sr., worked on signed into law by President Obama last year.
Dingell said it feels great to see those bills become law.
