It’s November, that time of the year when people gather together around warm fireplaces and their respective voting stations. One place is to sit, give thanks, and eat a large turkey dinner. The other is to review, mark, and vote for the next set of people who are going to “

run this town.” To the average teenager with a driver’s license, election time means just one thing, more time to honk at sign waivers! Yet the democratic process, our republican government, and the civic responsibility of voting that so many have fought to gain and still die to achieve, is much more than merely another Scan-Tron test. It is the power to promote your ideas, the freedom to live how you want, a means to ensure what you want done gets done.

So, by that passion, the McKinley Civics Club in the last weeks of the first quarter tried fervently to register this year’s seniors, who will be next year’s voters, into the Hawaii elections system. The turn-out was great with a total of 120 applications turned in. These students are commended for their show of responsibility in participating in our democratic process.

We would like to encourage all seniors to get involved and register so that the future government of Hawaii will reflect the ideals of the people, not the interests of politicians. In a time where, in the Middle East, going out to vote means the possibility of being killed by a car bomb, in a time where you can’t access Google in China because of government censorship, in a time where, in South Africa, groups of people are being exterminated by drug lords who have more control of the government than the president, we in America have it easy. We have safety, freedom, and the opportunity to elect our leaders.

All it takes is your vote.

(Suda is the president of the Civics Club.)