The presidential election is a little less than three weeks away.
Most voter registration deadlines have passed, and the rest are coming up soon. Absentee ballots have been dropped off or sent through the mail. If you are one of 5 million Americans who have already cast their ballots, you might take this time to breathe. Relax your shoulders, recline your chair and close your eyes. After all, you’ve done your job.
I would like to argue that you haven’t — not completely. Voting is the easy part, but staying informed afterwards? That’s a challenge we still struggle with and honestly, it’s not hard to see why.
This year feels like a decade’s worth of history was misfiled and no one has caught the mistake. We trudge along, surviving riots, natural disasters and viruses. Plus, for the past few months, politics have slapped us in the face every time we start to doze off. Everyone is tired.
Yet now, more than ever, is when we need to stay alert and stay awake.
The confirmation hearing for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, began on Oct. 12.
Then, days after condemning former Vice President Joe Biden for always wearing a mask, Trump caught COVID-19. First Lady Melania Trump, Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and other senators have also received positive COVID-19 tests. Despite this, the White House said it will not mandate masks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell added on Oct. 2 that the confirmation hearings would move “full steam ahead.”
Meanwhile, hundreds are gathering in protest and in support of Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Others continue to demonstrate in support of social justice.
In ecological news, the wildfires in California have burned over 4 million acres and sparked modern history’s first “gigafire.” Matthew Hurteau, an associate professor at the University of New Mexico who studies fire in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, said scientists didn’t predict fires of this scale until between 2040 and 2060.
A report from the UN said the world has failed to meet a single target to stem the “destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems in the last decade.”
Life is moving on outside of the election, but whether it moves forward is up to us. I’m not saying we have to be constantly glued to our TVs and phone screens. That would lead to an overwhelming sense of pessimism.
However, we have to stay updated about what is going on in our country politically, environmentally and socially. We live in a technological age, where in seconds we can communicate across international borders through texts, social media and livestreams. Saying “I had no idea” or completely isolating yourself from the world cannot be used as an excuse.
As a voter, you have to be informed because who you vote for now will impact the future and elections that follow. Everything is connected, which means we have to pay attention.
