As the United States approaches the 2020 presidential election after a summer marked by nationwide protests, BYU–Hawaii students said voting along with protesting are important to make lasting change.
“Voting is important because it is one of the few opportunities citizens have to choose a person who will represent and embody their beliefs in political battles,” said Kelly Martinez a senior from Florida majoring in cultural anthropology. It is important for people to vote because the people who are elected can make change in a way the average citizen cannot, explained Martinez.
Rachel Howden, a BYUH alumna from Utah said she thinks voting is important “because it’s how our government is set up. The power for change is in the hands of politicians and lawmakers.” Howden compared voting for politicians to public transportation.
She said when people take the bus or train, they do not expect it to take them to the doorstep of their destination, instead they take the bus or train that takes them as close to their destination as possible. The same principle is true with voting, explained Howden. People should vote for the candidates who take them as close to their desired destination as possible.
“We can’t expect them to be everything we want them to be, but we can support those who get us closest to where we want to be,” said Howden.
Siera Rasmussen, a junior from California majoring in elementary education said being an active voter is key for the state of democracy. “I think it is important to do your part to help out. If you don’t vote, what’s the point of having democracy?”
Martinez said both voting and protesting are important in making lasting change. “Unfortunately, in this country politicians only listen when the problem escalates to the boiling point,” said Martinez. Elected officials need to “continuously keep their end of the promises they proposed to the people who voted them into their current position,” she said.
Howden said protesting is important because it can raise awareness about important issues, “It shows the things being protested about can’t be ignored,” she said.
However, protesting is not always effective Howden said, often people see it as an immature way to look at or deal with the issue at hand and this can lead people to use protests to invalidate the entire movement, she explained.
Sharing and listening to people’s stories are important ways to become informed on issues and can act as a call to action said Howden. “I feel the most effective thing we can do is humanize the issue. It makes you realize that every issue is very nuanced and complex,” she said.
For many years Howden said she events going on in the Middle East were not particularly important to her. However after doing a summer work program in Switzerland where she worked closely with people from the Middle East, Howden said she now cares about issues in the region more than before, because they have become personal to her.
Another way to humanize issues is to listen to people’s stories said Howden, it is important to listen to people’s stories from every side of any given issue to more fully understand where people are coming from and why they believe what they believe she explained.
People need to listen to various sources of information when deciding their position on any given issue Howden said. “[You] can’t just listen to one politician and decide that’s your opinion now, you need to listen to a lot of different people [to] actually become informed,” she said.
Voting as well as protesting are important parts of making change, but both require follow up said Howden. “My main thing is you can’t just vote and sign off, and you can’t just protest and sign off, you have to go out and continue to fight for what you believe in,” she said.
People can positively affect their communities not only by voting and protesting but also by supporting local businesses, doing community service and by getting to know people on a personal level, explained Martinez. “When you have the support of your community along with their trust, so much good can come from [that].”