Justifying my "apathy":

Yesterday the room-mate asked why I don't care about politics, especially since I am so passionate about other social ideas. I told her the truth: that there's nothing to be said in politics- it's been the same for 200 years, and I think there's no room for a new opinion. We don't even really choose who we vote for- our respective parties choose for us who would be most suitable as the next candidate. Everyone knows about politics and it's generally acknowledged that anything done in politics takes a great deal of time and a great deal of people- from a bill being passed to a shift in political power- so one vote, one person, one voice makes little difference.

I am not silent, however. In terms of things like the tradition of childhood genital mutilation in some African and Middle East cultures or the unjust treatment of animals to be used for food or fashion, I'm fueled to cry out in my single voice. When it comes to realities that people aren't generally aware of, I think my one voice makes a huge difference. That's why I choose to boast my choice of vegetarianism and assert my knowledge of the lack of international women's rights, and then remain passively uninterested in watching the State of the Union Address. I don't care what decisions that the people, to which we as a country have granted power, make for us. I don't care what differences are made yearly in our national budget. A percentage decrease in the funding of public schools seems so incredibly petty compared to "deficits" happening everywhere else. I don't care about these people because I didn't vote for them, although we as a country did. I don't care if I don't agree with what they're doing, because chances are that their trivial changes will have about the same effect on me that my vote would have on their position in office. I don't care about the men and women chosen to represent and organize the justices we already have as a free, democratic nation. My voice in politics is unbelievably insignificant. I simply don't want to care. Instead, I care about focusing my energy on asserting the need for justice for those creatures- animals, women, children, men- who don't already have freedom. I care about things that most people don't. I want to use my voice to argue not what people have known for two centuries but what they have never realized in their entire lives. I want to use the one voice I have to speak for those who weren't granted one.