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Letter fromthe Editor

Dear Readers,

As I’m sure you will notice when you read this month’s paper, there is a recurrent theme through this edition. Next month is a national election, and many of the articles, op-eds, editorials, and new columns are related to campus involvement in political discourse, or the lack thereof.

It has been less than a century since our great-grandmothers worked to secure for us that sacred right which we now take for granted: the vote. Millions of women all over the world, relegated to lives of sexual and/or economic slavery, are forbidden from taking part in this fundamental aspect of public life, and would give anything for what we have. Our country is founded on the principle that the people should decide their collective fate for themselves, rather than letting someone else chart a course for them. When you stay home on election day, you have allowed others to make decisions that affect your life. You have allowed your voice to be silenced.

In the past month alone we have seen the strength of our generation’s ability to cohere to protest decisions that we believed to be detrimental to our lives. We watched our sisters at Randolph Macon Women’s College take to the streets in demonstrations against the Board’s choice to admit men to the College. And in a less substantive but more strident example, we witnessed the thunderstorm of protests against the new Facebook format that got an immediate apology from the site’s director.

Despite the drastic fall in youth voting in the past 30 years, it is clear that we do know how to raise our voices when we are directly affected by events. The next Congress will make decisions about whether our brothers and friends get drafted, whether we have enough money to pave roads and buy textbooks for our children, and whether to cut or fund programs that help pay for our college tuition. Do you want to give up your voice in these decisions?

So educate yourself, and vote for the candidate whose political platform most represents what you want—not the one your parents or friends are voting for, and not the one you’d most like to have a beer with. The Sweet Briar experience is about becoming leaders. Leaders do not stay silent when important decisions get made. They speak out. Your vote is your voice, and as your fellow student and citizen, I implore you to use it.

Respectfully,

Rachel E. Reynolds
Editor in Chief