In today’s society, it is almost impossible to turn on the television and not see some sort of tragedy whether it is another mass shooting, sex trafficking or families being torn apart due to immigration laws.

Another tragedy that we are living in is so many Americans don’t vote or choose not to vote because they have no clue what is going on around them. Although this isn’t the case for everyone, from what I’ve experienced so many people around me don’t know what is going on in their country which leads them to think, “why should I vote?”

I was eating dinner with a few of my friends last week. I’m not sure how we got on the topic of politics because usually that’s avoided at the table, but we did and I was shocked when I asked my friend ‘are you a Democrat or a Republican and she answered, “I’m a Republican but I don’t really know why.”

I asked her a couple more questions, one I can remember was, “Well, do you support abortion and things like that?” She hesitated and said she did because she believes it’s a woman’s right to be able to choose but when I told her Republican candidates don’t usually swing that way she didn’t know how to respond.

Her cheeks became red and her eyes turned away from me and down at her food. I wasn’t trying to make her change her mind on what political party she wants to side with. I just wanted to understand more clearly what was going through her head.

“I try not to get involved in politics that much,” she said as she looked up. When she finished her sentence at first I was a little annoyed, but then I remembered I was once like her too. I used to have the mindset that I shouldn’t pay attention because in my mind politics didn’t affect me. But I was wrong.

That was when I came to the conclusion that I didn’t know enough about what was going on. It would be unfair for me to bash her for not knowing because I too don’t know as much about politics as I should.

As a senior in high school, we were required to take a Civics and Law class, which taught us the fundamentals about basic history, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, how a bill becomes a law and all that information that everyone needs to know.

As I sat in my chair I realized, man, I really don’t know any of this; but I was not alone. Most of my class made up of twenty-five students didn’t know either.

I took that class two years ago and there is no way that I remember most of what we learned.

The class I took was only one semester long. I believe in order to understand politics and the concepts behind it, a class should be longer than one semester. Politics or some sort of lessons should be taught for at least two years because we need young people in this country to make a change, and we can not do so without the correct knowledge.

I only know more about politics and more about the world because I pay attention to the news. I pay attention to breaking news and try to stay connected with what is going on.

Not everyone is like me. My friend, like tons of other people I know, get their news from social media like Twitter or Facebook. This isn’t always a bad thing, but in a world where news can be extremely fabricated, I believe people should turn to real news sites and pay attention to the country and the rest of the world because what is going on matters.

People need to understand that voting is important and if people don’t know enough about it, they should start researching. I believe we can make a change, but only if we know what is going on.