Front Page  »  

Baby boomer to millennials, get out and vote

September 10, 2016
Diane Griffin-Duenow

Diane Griffin-Duenow

OPINION by DIANE GRIFFIN-DUENOW

Dear millennials: If you think this presidential election is a “joke” and will not affect you, listen-up!

We baby-boomers are retiring and past our earning years. You, on the other hand, are just getting started as wage earners and the bulk of the purchasing public in America.

The biggest two issues in this election are “saving the planet” and the Supreme Court – both of which effect you and your children directly.

The current Supreme Court has given us Citizens United, which allows unrestricted and unreported money in politics. This is why you think your vote doesn’t count.  Corporations are allowed to pour money into campaigns (e.g. Koch Brothers).

There will be at least two vacancies on the Supreme Court soon. Who do you want representing you? Do you want multi-national corporations running the world and making democracy irrelevant?

Second, the very future of the planet is at stake. Republicans deny climate change, when the world’s scientific community agrees that climate change is real and time is running out for you and your children.

You must vote in this critical election. Your future is at stake and the future of your children’s survival is melting away with the glaciers.

Wake-up, inform yourselves and get to the polls!

Diane Griffin-Duenow has lived in San Luis Obispo for 40 years. Before her retirement, she taught English at San Luis Obispo High School.


Loading...
Subjects:         
Related:


28 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Diane, you’re telling folks how to vote. Did it occur to you that getting folks out to vote may not roll your way; that getting folks out to vote might just roll in the favor of conservatives like myself?


0

So basically, what you’re saying, is we need to get out and try to fix the world you baby boomers completely jacked up. Thanks for the financial bubbles, unconstitutional wars, mass incarceration, and the ridiculous national debt. Kind of ironic how your generations speaks so poorly of the ones that followed.


0

I’m not a millennial, but I see her point.


Ignoring her liberal slant, the message of showing power in voting, in how we spend our money, and who we support politically is right.


Middle class people often vote against their own best interests. My personal advice is to find out who donates to a candidate financially, who their lobbyists are, AND their voting record.


0

What socialist drivel. What do you bet that she indoctrinated her students in this crap? No wonder our schools are in such a poor state of effectiveness.


0

Sadly, millennials will only vote if they can do it from their electronic, social media device…kind of like driving and texting…..


0

And why shouldn’t they be able to vote through their smart phone or computer, assuming a secure system can be established to do so? Naturally the well off and retired crowd can brag about their high voter turn out…what else would they be doing on a Tuesday in the middle of the week. Meanwhile, there are legitimate concerns for those that either don’t have the means or the time to get over to a polling station (such as childcare, transportation, etc.).


0

I’m so tired of hearing these socialist liberals try to persuade which wy a young person should vote. Why not simply just tell them to register and vote? You think you are so much smarter because you are a Cali retired teacher. Most teachers I’ve known including in college lacked common sense. I’m a retired fed (DOD) and sick of socialist utopians trying to tell Americans what is better for them. Have you been around the world lady? Have you looked at the problems Western Europe is having lately? South America? Your ideology is flawed and bankrupt.


We do need to wisely choose, Who will get great jobs moving for our country, who will keep us safe, Who will help end ISIS and their buddies. Who will continue to protect my constitutional rights with good judges. Who will bring back respect to our country. Who won’t jump into global interventionism and end this globalist baloney and get back to doing what’s fair, right, and best for Americans first.


Concerned American


0

I think most of us would agree that putting America first is absolutely necessary and what we should expect from any president.


Given your screen name, I am guessing that you are or have been a soldier who has served our country (and thank you for that!). I have read some fascinating things about out past wars and military strategies, including theories on how, were it not for alliances with other countries, the United States would not exist. I’d be interested to know your take on that.


I’m thinking of the Revolutionary War as an example. Historians seen to agree that if the French had not helped out the colonists, the British would have won, and there would be no United States. I’ve also read a lot of speculation that had there not been an alliance of many countries during WWII, Hitler might well have essentially conquered the world, and we might all be speaking German.


It is hard for me to imagine a comparatively-small country like Germany being able to defeat America, but they were very close to having the atomic bomb, and if they had it before we didn’t I suspect that could have been a total game changer.


As a soldier, I’m sure you understand such things better than many of us, but my point, which you have undoubtedly already surmised, is that it seems that we do need strong allies in the world in order to stay as safe as possible. and that while our next president must put America first, isolationism was and still is a dangerous concept. You know the old saying – “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”


0

Oops – fumble fingers strike again. I meant to type,


It is hard for me to imagine a comparatively-small country like Germany being able to defeat America, but they were very close to having the atomic bomb, and if they had it before we DID I suspect that could have been a total game changer.


0

Yea we can all play the if this happened and that happened game. If we paid attention on Dec. 7th to the sub at bay entrance, if we realized difference between B-17’s coming in vs war planes yada, yada. Works both ways. Hell if I had been born to Bill Gates…………………….


0

Why do we care about what foreign correspondents (or any other outsider) think about us, or the election? This isn’t about them. It’s about us. And if we can’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of them…. which is what we’ve done for the past 75 years. That’s the only way their socialism has managed to survive in its less than pure form.


0

You said, “Why do we care about what foreign correspondents (or any other outsider) think about us, or the election?” The reference to foreign correspondents was in response to Mej’s suggestion, “Don’t just watch/read CNN and don’t just watch/read Fox. Watch them both and then watch/read foreign news/websites.”


I believe what Mej meant was that we need input from a variety of viewpoints since any given news source can be biased or incomplete, and the more sources we have the better chance we have of getting at the truth. Seeing ourselves as others see us can be a real eye opener and bring new perspective that is hard to get just reading viewpoints from others within our own culture.


I have to disagree with your statement, ” This isn’t about them. It’s about us.” What the United States does affects the whole world. Actually, what pretty much any country does these days can potentially affect the rest of the world.


0

Oh please, hyphen-lady. The only thing being denied is God, country and the constitution. Glad I wasn’t your student. I would have had a few choice English phrases to teach you.


0

Hun, Your candidate is a walking corporation. She is funded by the the largest corporations.


Speaking of saving the planet. Grandiose. How about saving the children from the onslaught of cancer from mandatory vaccines the Dems put into place.


Dear elderly ladies who love Clinton so much. If you don’t want to see yourself as a joke, then realize that every single politician talks from both sides of their mouth. Don’t just watch/read CNN and don’t just watch/read Fox. Watch them both and then watch/read foreign news/websites.


But most importantly open your eyes and see whats going on around you and learn to interpret events yourself instead of relying on the media. Nothing worse than those who rely on Cable tv or Internet memes or others to tell them what to think and who is the bad guy and good guy. I guess there is one thing worse. That’s having tv tell you what to think and then think it was your idea.


0

Regarding what those in other countries are reporting in the news about Clinton vs. Trump, there’s a very interesting article, “American Elections Through the Eyes of Foreign Correspondents” at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/07/trump-clinton-foreign-correspondent/491300/


There’s another article about what the foreign press thinks of Trump at https://thinkprogress.org/what-newspapers-in-13-countries-are-saying-about-donald-trump-819e632616d2#.34ex6rlbl


In regard to the big corporations controlling the country, I like to read the latest from the Center for Media and Democracy. This article on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is really informative: http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC%3F


0
1 2