new roads school

November 2010
Inspired education
for an evolving world

Alumni Association Voices

THE MIDTERMS ARE COMING, THE MIDTERMS ARE COMING!1
Or, should I vote?
by Mick Rosenthal, class of 2007 and Alumni Association Editor

T
hat’s right, time for another election. If
you have stayed plugged in and listened to
TV and radio and even the Internet, you have
heard political ads, or spots both positive and
negative for and against different candidates.
Yes I know this is late, but I just thought I would
give one final push to get out the vote. The
2010 midterms, which some people see as
unimportant, deal with electing people to different
offices. With the midterm elections, you don’t just
have eventually two candidates to choose from
like during the presidential election, but many
to choose from because the midterms elect the
Governor, Lieutenant Governor (basically the
second in command of the state), Secretary
of State, Senate, Attorney General, Insurance
Commissioner and many other important political
offices which people may not know much about.
In the midterms voting also occurs for different
1 A play on the famous words “The British are coming! The British are coming!” shouted by Paul Revere as he made his
famous ride to warn the colonists the night before the first battle of the Revolutionary War in 1775.
2 The Americans 174
3 Ibid, 174.
4 Ibid.
5 http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/misc/faq.php
6 America’s Constitution: A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar, 499
propositions, or ideas that voters want to see
on the ballot, for example Proposition 24. The
midterms happen all over the country.
Here in California for example, two major
offices being contested are Governor and
Lieutenant Governor among others. Arnold
Schwarzenegger is serving his last term and
so the two people running to replace him (of
the two dominant political parties, Republican
and Democrat, not discounting the Green
Party, Peace & Freedom Party, and others) are
Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown. Running for
Lieutenant Governor are Abel Maldonado, the
current California Lieutenant Governor, against
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The midterms actually HAVE MUCH
IMPORTANCE! The big question is why vote,
not just in the midterms, but in any election? No
matter the election, midterms or presidential,
your vote has an impact on the future of how the
country is run.
The history of the United States is full of
people fighting for their right to vote, but today
many take voting for granted. This should not
happen. During colonial times, in 1789, only
white men who owned property could vote.
Eighty-one years later in 1870 black males
could vote2. Women got the right to vote in
19203, then in 1924 voting rights were given to
First Nation peoples4 and then with passage
of the National Voting Rights Act of 1965,
blacks were allowed to vote and the Voting
Rights Act stopped prejudice in voting5. Finally
in 1971 young people got the right to vote with
the 26th Amendment to the Constitution which
states in part “The right of citizens of the United
States, who are eighteen years of age or older,
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any State on account
of age”6. With the ability to vote progressing
through time to encompass so many different
people the question is again, why would you
not vote when you have it as a right to be freely
exercised? Make your vote count!
I hope everyone has read about the offices,
the different propositions and voted already by
absentee or will go to the polls on November
2nd 2010.

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h New Roads School Homecoming
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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Watch the Alumni Association Facebook page for more details!