Editor, Daily Nexus,

It seems as though we give way too much credit to the average university student these days. At a school that has respectably made it a goal to reach 10,000 registered voters in order to uphold UCSB’s record of registering the highest number of voters of any campus in the nation, it seems all too absurd for students to be preaching apathy to other students (“If You Don’t Want to Vote, Don’t,” Daily Nexus, Oct. 9). The question was asked, “Why do we want people who don’t want to vote to vote?” The answer is simple and seemingly much less naïve than the question. Encouraging citizens to vote is encouraging them to exercise the greatest privilege they are given as Americans. In fact, not doing so is not only taking the “easy” way out, but it is also shitting on every other human in the world whose innate right to vote has been taken away. There is an assumption that a person who votes is someone who has taken the time to learn about the current issues facing our country, even if only for a second. Therefore, if you encourage someone to vote, you’re also implicitly encouraging him or her to learn about what’s going on in country, regardless of how minimally he or she chooses to do so.

My favorite part of the “Don’t Vote” author’s advice is when he tells you to “let someone else make decisions for you” because it’s “easier.” Wow. Don’t forget to add in that if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain about anything America is doing. Why? Because you had your chance to state your opinion and instead, you chose to be an uneducated lazy bum. So don’t complain after the fact — it won’t help. If you don’t want to vote, I won’t encourage you not to. That’s just stupid. Instead, I will encourage you to get off your ass — you don’t even have to put your Keystone down — spend 10 minutes making a halfway-educated decision on who to vote for, and go do it. You might actually feel like a good person.