ICAR Student Opinion

November 4: A Vote for Your Future

November 4th, 2008, will be remembered centuries from now when the histories of these times are written. The next president faces a myriad of convergent leadership challenges and opportunities that are unique to this historic moment.

First, the global financial crisis is beginning to look more and more like another Great Depression. In one year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange shaved off 40 percent with most of it occurring in the first week of October.

Presidential leadership will be necessary if the United States and other nations are to discover new avenues of cooperation that will ensure more peaceful and productive relations down the road. Economic cooperation will also save taxpayer dollars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Second, NASA's James Hansen and over one-thousand other international scientists have warned us that we have less than ten years to stop global warming before it is too late. Warnings of more frequent and stronger Katrina-type storms are enough to curdle your blood just thinking of New Orleans and the failure of leadership from President Bush.

The world is increasingly cooperating towards a future of green technology that will see cheaper and more renewable sources of energy, air that we can actually breathe, and conserved land ripe for adventure. Presidential leadership will be needed to steer the U.S. along the world's path towards a greener future.

Finally, enough people in America and the world think that we should overcome our racial, ethnic, and gender divisions. Barack Obama, if elected, will be the first ethnic/ racial minority chief executive and head of state for any Western nation. If John McCain is elected, Sarah Palin will be the first female vice-president of the United States.

Consequently, I hope the histories will show that born now is a world of humanity devoid of the archaic divisions of race, ethnicity, and gender. The next president will have an opportunity to lead the charge in erasing these archaic divisions. I can now imagine a world where a person's success is measured by their merits and not their appearance.

The only thing I implore you to do is vote. It does not matter if your vote is for Senator McCain or Senator Obama. Your vote is your voice in history. Your participation in this election is a vote of confidence in America, a vote to overcome the "isms" that divide us, and a vote for your future.