Voter registration needed everywhere

I was greatly surprised by the Daily Forty-Niner "Our View" on August 31, 2000 concerning the World Wrestling Federation and its efforts to encourage the youth of this country to vote. My surprise did not come from the fact that the issue was addressed, but by the fact that the Forty-Niner opposed this effort.

I find it difficult to believe that an organization such as the Forty-Niner would have a problem with a sport star, or any entertainer for that matter, stressing the importance of the right to vote. Voting is the one right that most people in this nation ignore and yet they complain when their rights are voted away.

People here in California were so sure that no one would vote for a proposition forcing non-smoking buildings, restaurants, and bars that they avoided the polls and then were very surprised when the proposition passed. Immediately people demanded a recall, but too little is often too late and to this day, the ban stands.

Perhaps if smokers had been encouraged to vote by a sports hero or entertainer they respected, then their right to smoke would not be limited to specified areas outdoors.

As for the WWF specifically, in 1996 this organization was barely a blip on the television scene, consistently losing in the cable ratings and certainly not on regular prime time TV. Now, a mere five years later, this company has risen to the number one rated cable show and regularly wins its prime time slot on Thursday nights on the UPN network.

So how does this company repay its fans? Does it raise prices on its merchandise and pay per views? Does it regularly have its stars in the headlines due to drug abuse, domestic violence or assault? No.

The WWF uses it popularity for the good of its fans, not just paying lip service to registering to vote, but providing the web site, smackdownyourvote.com for fans to do so.

Its stars garner headlines by appearing at both the Republican and the Democratic national conventions, demonstrating not only bipartisan support of the system as a whole, but putting aside its personal differences with the Democratic party.

Democrats Tipper Gore and vice-presidential hopeful Joseph Lieberman are both members of a group called the Parents Television Council, an organization that regularly arranges boycotts of advertisers on WWF programming in an effort to get the shows removed from the airwaves.

The best political move would see the WWF firmly in the Republican camp trying to dethrone Democratic power, and yet there the WWF is, not asking its fans to vote one way or another, but just asking that they vote.

The Forty-Niner's "Our View" asked why should wrestling federations tell us to vote when teachers do not.

I'm not sure if the editorial staff of the Forty-Niner has skipped the political science classes required by the general education requirement here at Cal State Long Beach, but in those classes teachers do encourage you to vote.

Then again I doubt I have had any class during an election year where the teacher has not encouraged students to get out and exercise their right to have their voices heard.

As a matter of fact, the Forty-Niner itself encouraged students to vote in it's "Our View" on March 27, 2000 stating "When you don't vote, you lose the freedom of choice." Granted, the editorial was only referring to on campus elections, but I was surprised to see the vast change in stance from one semester to another.

Perhaps it was my naïveté that made me think that just because a few members of your editorial staff had changed, that the values and social consciousness of your paper would remain the same.

The scary thing is not that the WWF is asking people to vote, but that by its current figures it has registered over 60, 000 people. Since the WWF demographics are aimed at men and women between 18-35, that means that 60,000 people between those ages were not previously registered to vote.

Sadly, for every one person that has registered, two probably have not. That is a lot of voices silenced in the political arena because they could not take the time to fill out a simple form.

The Forty-Niner should not be writing editorials against the efforts of the WWF to get those 60,000 people to vote, but should be writing in support of their efforts.