Let me present to you the latest conservative victory: Indiana. Yes, the good old Hoosier State. What the Republicans were able to do in this great state was pass a religious freedom bill that allows individuals and business to exercise their religious beliefs without government intervention.

This beautiful piece of legislation had enabled the people of this great state to exercise their beliefs and to operate in their communities as they see fit without fear of government interference and the opportunity to decide whom to serve or not serve on the basis of their religious beliefs. This shall go down in history in saving the United States of America from a religion free tomorrow.

I am kidding of course.

This bill, Indiana Senate Bill 568 to be specific, has basically legalized discrimination of any people in the state of Indiana on the basis of religious freedom. This bill, while on the surface very similar to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act from Clinton’s administration (mind you which failed due to it being unconstitutional on the grounds that it was outside the Congress enforcement power) allows corporations to refuse services to certain groups of people on the and use violation of law as a legal defense in a court of law.

Understandably, this law has met an absolute deluge of criticism. Mitch Daniels, former Governor of Indiana and president of Purdue University has opposed this law as it interferes with the university’s anti-discrimination policy. Companies from Apple to PayPal and even Yelp are now considering limiting and reducing their presence in the state due to this law.

The NCAA, which is based in Indiana, is now concerned about how their student-athletes, employees and visitors would be treated under this legislation. Gen Con, the largest table-top game convention in North America, has said it may leave Indianapolis due to the law. Indiana is quite literally losing business left and right thanks to this law.

So what can we learn from this?

Well, this law was developed in a state in which, according to U.S. News, had a 28 percent turnout in the 2014 midterm election. Nationally, we had a 40.9 percent turnout for midterm election with 13 percent of those who did come out being the under the age of thirty.

Now I am not saying that the turnout of voters in Indiana was made up mostly of Republicans; unfortunately that data, to the best of my knowledge, is not available. But we can make some educated guess about the composition of voters that did come out given that a good majority of Republican voters are above 50.

The message here is that if we, as a generation do not do our civic duty and vote, we can expect to see more of these laws being pass. By us not voting, the issues and concerns of our generation are not being heard and are being ignored in favor of the previous generation’s concerns. We must get out of the mindset that these elections do not matter for they matter and will have grave consequences if we do not care about them, as Indiana has unfortunately demonstrated.

At this point, you are probably have one of two thoughts on your mind: this is really bad; how do we fix this, and why should I care? Well let me tell you why: Student Council Elections. Ah yes, you thought you could just ignore it didn’t you? As many of you know, these elections are almost upon us, but many of you probably do not care about these elections; after all, what can student council officers really do? Many of you believe that people that join council are doing it just for the resume or that Council has no ability to change anything.

Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret: we do a heck lot more than nothing. From the Spirit Week to Mr. Harriton, the members and even more so the officers have to work hard to ensure that Mr. Harriton, Spirit Week, Quidditch and other events are successes and not failures. Beyond that, your officers are your connection between you and administration; they can act on your behalf to have your concerns be addressed. As with voter turnout, we must get out of the mindset that these elections do not matter for they do matter.

So, as I close with this article, I want you to do something. I want you, for this election and every future election from here on out, to care about the outcome. I want you to care about the platforms of these candidates. I want you to do research about them, about their platforms and to ask them questions about the platforms and how feasible they are.

And when you mark your ballot, I want to do so with some sense of purpose, I want you to believe that your ballot can actually change the school and move things forward. And after the elections, I want you participate with your officers and expect action from them. If you have an idea that could improve the school, great, submit your idea either through the student council website or even directly with the Student Council officer team. I want you to get rid of the mindset that these elections are meaningless for they are far from it. Have your voice heard. Vote.