“Because my parents are,” I’ve heard one too many times.

I’m not here to tell you that you should identify with a certain party or no party, or agree with your parents or disagree with your parents. I’m here to tell you to start caring about an election that could affect the rest of your life.

We are a generation with access to all the information we could ever want or need. We are a generation that speaks its mind, and we certainly have the forums to do so. We are a generation that will grow up and have to confront the challenges our country faces right now. We are not a generation of clones that mindlessly agrees with what others, including our parents, say to us.

Yet the only reason some people claim to be a Democrat or Republican is because that is the party with which their parents affiliate. Let’s be honest, if your parents both shaved their heads, got tattoos on their foreheads and swore off food, would you do that too?

There is nothing wrong with agreeing with your parents, but there is something wrong if you do not examine the issues and try to form an opinion of your own. This November, there are seniors in our school who are going to vote, but some of them likely have no idea what the major issues are. And to be quite frank, that scares me senseless.

While handing out surveys before the last issue of the Torch was published, I had a senior come up to me in the SAC and question me about what I was doing. After telling her the surveys were about the election, she responded with a disgusted, “Ew.”

“Ew” should not be the reaction to one of the most important decisions our country has to face. “Ew” is a response elicited when there is a spider on your wall or a hair in your food. Seniors should not be disgusted by politics, but rather intrigued.

Inherently, we are not born caring about politics, and in most cases the media’s response to political events is messy and boring. The election is something we have to learn to care about. That means trying to keep ourselves updated with the issues and forming our own opinions.

Some might ask why this matters. We don’t live in a swing state. Obama is projected to win Illinois, and the majority of students in our school are not voting. But each bias that you form early in your life can affect your future decisions. Each uninformed word you speak to convince another person of your opinion can change their ideology. To form a basis of knowledge for future elections, you have to be informed about this one.

If you are a Republican or Democrat just because your parents are, you probably have not put a lot of thought into the issues that define the parties. Are you pro-life or pro-choice? What’s your stance on taxes and healthcare? What do you think the United States should do regarding Iran? If your answer to any of those questions is “I’m pro-life because my dad is,” or “I love Obamacare because my mom does,” or “I don’t know,” then you have some serious catching up to do.

Don’t say you’re a Republican if you don’t know what being a Republican means. Don’t say you’re a Democrat if you don’t know the issues for which Democrats stand. There are 11 days until the election. Learn the facts before you determine your political affiliation.