Dear Reader,

Thanks for taking the time to pick up the Mountaineer. This issue is dedicated to all the people who worked so hard to raise awareness about the election. We don’t need to explain how important a role student activism takes in this country and all over the world.

In the weeks leading up the election we saw many Green Mountain students taking initiative and working to promote the political ideas that many of us share. To many of us, Bush winning the election would be a nightmare; we can only hope that in such an event, Green Mountain will still be standing the next day. Of course, regardless of which candidate reigns, the Streaking Team will likely alleviate our distress with a little flying peep show.

The pulse of the campus, as far as we can tell, seems to be that if Bush is the nightmare choice, Kerry is still not our ideal fantasy. His close corporate ties and upper-class background place him in an economic bracket that can scarcely relate to the more green, grassroots tendencies of many of our community members.

One of the strongest messages from our professors during the faculty mock-debate this October, however, and an important thing to remember is that there are more ways to create change than simply by voting for a third-party candidate who has no chance of winning. It is unfortunate that our voting system is such that it does not account for votes that are thrown away on minority candidates, but that is how it is. And we should vote accordingly, knowing that the surest way to realize our beliefs is to support the person who has a chance to carry them out.

There is great potential at places like Green Mountain College, even if the incumbent wins this November 2, for a strong movement toward change: change for the protection of the environment, change for the promotion of human and civil rights, and change for equality of all people in a nation that claims so sanctimoniously to be a haven of freedom.

And regardless of who is our president for the next years, no doubt this country’s leadership is in need of help. As Howard Zinn said at a recent talk he gave at Castleton State College, “The college and university campuses in America today look a lot like they did in 1959.” We have a chance to unleash this building momentum and allow it to grow, and as a unique school in one of the most liberal states in the country, it is our responsibility to share our perspective.

By now, it’s too late for GMC students to submit absentee ballots in their home states. What is important is that we look beyond the election, to what we can do that is more than voting, and taking the initiative to have our voices be heard, for progress in Vermont, America, and the world.

Sincerely,
The Mountaineer Editors