By Shalan Darragh
Election time already? I could have sworn I just punched my meaningless ballot in the most dubious election in American history. But I suppose this popularity contest- err, I mean election- is of a different ilk. The SGA election this week is “different.” These are our own peeps campaigning, fellow Cardinals seeking public office. My question is, “So what?”
I don’t mean to sound callous or indifferent about the election, but in all honesty, what has the SGA done recently that has benefited my fellow students or me? I don’t live on campus, but visit it frequently when I get the hankering to attend class, and I don’t notice any SGA presence at all. The only infamous SGA episode that stands out in recent memory took place last year following the TKE Halloween blackface debacle. SGA President Carlton Brown used the incident as a pulpit to impart his personal agenda on race relations on campus. I’ve got no issue at all with Brown’s statement: I just wondered at the time how his proclamation was supposed to be the symbolic voice of the student body that he was chosen to lead.
But I don’t want to rehash that whole mess. Let’s talk about our forthcoming elections. Let’s discourse about the “new” candidates. Uh, who? I guess I can make a decision based on the article in the paper last week. Well, no actually, I can’t. What I wonder is how, other than The Cardinal’s article last week, are students really supposed to know what candidate they wish to vote for, or if they should even care enough to go through the trouble of doing so? Plastering your mug on colorful fliers on every inch of unoccupied bulletin board all over campus doesn’t seem like very good campaigning if you ask me, unless of course this is just a warmed over beauty contest. (And the cynic in me suspects that it is.) I understand that many who run for the SGA are possibly interested in public service later on in life, and for that they should be lauded. Still, if you’re taking the time to make 700 pamphlets and tape them all over God’s green earth, couldn’t you find something a little more constructive to do to get your perspective ideas to the masses? Have you hung out in the quad or the SAC and attempted to sway potential voters? How about the library? I read a few of the candidates’ stances on issues pertaining to campus life in the aforementioned column, (and believe me, I’m all ears about a better parking situation), but a couple of paragraphs and a bunch of picture-covered fliers aren’t giving me a warm fuzzy about anybody.
So I challenge the candidates to educate us, your classmates. Make us interested in your agenda enough to bother with spending time to vote for you. I really want to be interested, but from what little I’ve seen and read thus far, no interest has been piqued, none whatsoever. Or, I suppose if you really want to be elected, you could choose a different path to office. If your family’s got the kind of clout a certain individual in the highest American office holds, just have daddy or your brother rig the election in your favor, and PRESTO! You’re the next Pres.
Eric Groves is a junior English major and columnist for The Cardinal. Contact:
eric_groves@louisvillecardinal.com
