From apathy to action

Today is Election Day, and if four years ago is any indication, half of all Americans won't vote. Among college-aged voters, this figure is significantly higher.

Citizens offer many explanations for their apathy. They cite undifferentiated candidates, lack of faith in the political process and doubt that their voices will be heard as reasons why they don't quite make it to the polls. Always the responsibility lies elsewhere. When our representatives in Washington pass legislation we don't agree with and our president makes decisions that scare us, all we can do is grumble. We feel powerless, and thus apathetic.

In this respect, Americans could benefit from the example of the Italians. Next to food and sports, the great Italian passion is politics. The Italian embassy website lists no less than forty political parties: Center Right, Left, Center Christian Democrats, United Christian Democrats, Daisies, Greens, the Olive, National Alliance, Northern League, Communists, Populists, Radical Transnationalists. There's literally an option for everyone.

My Italian friends explained to me that the multi-party system encourages political participation. A vote for a minority party against capitalism or in favor of northern secession can vault that party's candidate into parliament. Here he can scream alongside the representatives of more mainstream parties, and may even have a disproportionately loud voice as a result of his power to make or break a coalition. The range of choice offered by this system, combined with the amplification of minority voices, means that in Italy, every position — even the most absurd — can attain political representation. There is no excuse that one's vote won't count.

Besides flocking to the ballot box, the Italians also demonstrate — perhaps excessively. Every other weekend brings television reports of trains cancelled because of sciopero, or strike, as transit workers protest against concerns ranging from low wages to domestic issues to foreign policy. High school students seized every opportunity to skip school and andare in corteo, which in Gorizia involved marching in a huge parade from the train station parking lot to the city's main square and blocking traffic for hours in the meantime. One month it was racism, the next Palestinian occupation, and later war in Iraq that was the next cause célèbre.

The Italian tradition of political protest, however, can also approach the dangerous. When it appeared that America would bypass the U.N. Security Council to unilaterally attack Iraq, some members of an opposition party descended into the streets of Milan to destroy ATMs owned by American banks. In the 1970s and '80s, the extreme leftist terrorist organization called the Brigate Rosse, or Red Brigades, targeted Italian government and business leaders for assasination. They also claim responsibility for the March 20, 2002, assassination of Professor Marco Biagi, one of Berlusconi's economic advisors. Italians as a whole vociferously condemn such actions. Criticism of the government doesn't have to be violent to be effective.

My host mother in Italy has devised her own plan of protest. She goes every election to the polls, enters the booth and casts a blank ballot. When I asked why, she said, "Politicians tell you different things, but once they're elected they're all the same: They look out for their own interests." My host mother refuses to let her disgust at the system's corruption keep her from her responsibility of "voting."

Defining one's own method of political participation traces back to the very beginning of democracy. Socrates told the Athenians at his trial that his responsibility was not to participate in government but to serve as the gadfly, to warn his fellow citizens when they had gone astray. American citizens, too, must find their own niche within their political system. The first step to participation is awareness, which allows critical appraisal of the system's flaws. The critical juncture, however, is accepting individual responsibility to pursue change. This transformation of apathy into action begins, but must not end, in the polling booths today. Let's learn from the Italians: Screaming voices must eventually be heard. Emily Stolzenberg is a sophomore from Morgantown, W. Va. She can be reached at estolzen@princeton.edu.