Show up for life

There are very few times when I will actually look forward to a class and the best ones are the ones where you have discussions. My favorite class this semester (simply because of the atmosphere) has been my speech class. Now some people would hate it, but being in band for eight years and being in a lot of UIL competitions, I've gotten used to speaking in front of people. I mean, when you have to speak at your graduation, you very quickly get over your fear. Anyway, I love this class because we usually always manage to get into heated discussions. Like today, we had a 30 minute talk about abortion. Oooo, sticky subject, I know, but our teacher was trying to prove a point. She thought it should be legalized and we have a minister (or pastor? one of those) in our class, and as you can expect his views were completely opposite. So this sparked a debate among the class that had this crazy tension in it that you could just feel. Since our next speech has to be persuasive, her point was that when it comes to a speech about values, you shouldn't try to convince people if it's right or wrong, or good or bad, she was simply saying it should be legalized. I'm keeping my opinion about legalizing it out of it, but I'll say that she's right, because no matter how good an argument you have, people will always feel very strongly about any opinions they already have. I'm pro-life, by the way, not that it matters. Anyway, this kind of segued into talking about having opinions and believing in something. She told us we should go vote, even if we don't like anyone, cast the ballot anyway. I totally agree with her, and she said, "Show up for life." I've heard this before, I think, except it was more along the lines of, "Show up for life or it won't show up for you." I believe in getting involved, in anything. In anything you feel passionate about. My family thinks I'm crazy most of the time. Like the time I wanted to go to Austin to protest the reopening of ASARCO. Or like how I made us change to compact fluorescent lightbulbs because I believe global warming is a serious problem and we need to do everything we can. Or like how I hate using styrofoam and prefer to use paper so that it can at least be recycled. Or like how I hate PETA because of their proposed genocide of pit bulls (yeah...did you know that one?) My point, though, is this: I think more people need to get out and try to have their voice heard, no matter what you do, whether you join an organization or post a blog, make a contribution to society because one person can make a difference.