The Voting Results Are In: Sports Are Better.

Da Bears are playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday, and I am getting really excited. All of the hype and anticipation going on in Chicago reminded me of a theory brought up by one of my Dad’s favorite radio personalities as to why people care more about sports and their favorite sport teams than current politics. The man thought that it was because you can care a lot about and be very attached to a team, such as I am to the Bears or several of my friends are to the Packers, but whether they win or lose, your life is not going to be changed. If you start to care a lot about politics, and the politician or legislation you supported loses or does not pass, then your life could be affected. He theorized that people are more or less afraid to get involved in politics because they figure that they will not notice that their life is being negatively affected as long as they don’t care.

My main disagreement with his theory is that sports are way more fun than politics and it is kind of stupid to compare the two. Besides that, I think that people don’t vote or don’t get involved in politics because of several different reasons, but fear of the possible outcomes is not one of them for me. I was scowled at a lot last November because I did not vote in the Wisconsin election. My reason for not voting was that my insane schedule last semester did not afford me the time to look up information on the candidates and referendums. I decided to not vote at all rather than make an uneducated vote.

I’m not saying that I don’t understand how important a freedom it is to have the right to vote. My senior year of high school I was involved in the Center for Civic Education’s “Constitution Team” (super dorky, I know), so I basically spent 7 months of that year studying the Constitution and our nation’s government. I read up on a lot of the founding fathers thoughts on the right to vote, as well as many other things that I don't remember at all. Also, I had to keep up with current events because we could be asked about anything going on in politics during our competitions. After all that I was prepared to vote in any election, but I wasn’t 18 yet. Politics, for me, takes a lot of time. Last semester I just didn’t have that time.

I’m going home this weekend for my Mom’s birthday, so I will have time on Sunday to cheer on the Bears. I’ll probably be stressed out during the game, because I stress about everything, but hopefully they win. If not--I guess it won’t affect my life too much.