Editor's note: The Deseret News has selected a team of young writers from among the state's most talented journalism students. During the school year, these writers will contribute columns that examine current events from the perspective of the modern teenager.In an age where schools are computerized and newspapers can be read online, the truth is becoming harder to find. This may seem an exaggeration but when looked at in the light of politics and the future of our country, it is devastatingly true. Not only does this confusion hurt the country today, but it sends the message to teenagers that voting is too complicated to understand fully and not worth the effort.
Proposition 5 epitomizes this. With the airways chock-full of advertisements promoting bald eagles and kids fishing, Proposition 5 came off as the feel-good proposition of the century, touting Utah's wildlife and values. The truth was something different. The proposition aimed to alter Utah's constitution in favor of special interests, requiring any wildlife initiative to receive a two-thirds vote.
Students from Brigham Young University uncovered some interesting statistics. Fourteen percent of those who voted against Proposition 5 actually approved of the constitutional change. Meanwhile, 19 percent of those who voted for the change did not support it once they understood what it was all about. In other words, a lot of people were confused. "If the whole voting population understood what Prop 5 was, the vote would have been closer," said Eric A. Smith, a Brigham Young University political science researcher. "We can see with our data that there was confusion both ways."
It's unbelievable that the supporters of Proposition 5 wanted people to voluntarily reduce the power of their own votes. Is this the way a democracy works -- weight the votes to certain groups because the rest of the population is too ignorant to understand complex initiatives? If so, there should have been a proposal to require a supermajority vote on all ballot initiatives.
It's no wonder the truth about issues such as Proposition 5 get distorted. The airwaves were full of deceitful, sly campaign ads. Any advertising executive knows that if anything negative is associated with a product or a proposal, it should be covered up as much as possible. And the fact that Proposition 5 weakens democracy was covered up quite tastefully.
The information age is supposed to be making revolutionary changes to the way people learn about their world. And so it is. However, it's all too unfortunate when the facts surrounding important proposals, like Proposition 5, are lost amidst the money behind proponents' wants. So the voters regret which box they checked on the ballot, and the state hopes there is a challenge against the proposal. Meanwhile, many voters feel cheated and used through an advertising scam.
Not all media is distortional, though. The Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune both urged voters to say "no" through editorials. Informational articles explained the proposition at length. No surprise, then, are the results of Proposition 5 in Salt Lake County, where 113,000 people voted against it and 88,000 voted for it. It was the only county to oppose the proposal.
This confusion not only affects our country and state today, it sheds a gray light over politics for us teenagers who are on the brink of obtaining voting rights. We see voting as useless because the advertising business wins regardless of the proposal. Is this the message America wants to send to its younger generations? If so, it should not expect much of a country in the future, for we can't change anything if we're not prodded to vote or don't know what we're voting for.
It should not be inferred, however, that future generations will have nothing to offer. Many of us cannot wait until our 18th birthdays so we can run out and save the world through a ballot. But then again, there are those of us who feel lost in the age of distorted information, helpless in a world that concentrates only on the present but nonetheless hopeful of the America we can mold it into when we finally get to fill out our own ballots. With truthful information and further understanding, we will make the right decisions. I hope we won't allow ourselves a lessened voice on ballot initiatives.
Britta Ameel is a student at East High School.