I love to see Northern students get riled up about anything. There is no better time than college to get angry about politics, religion or injustice. It is a time when young people can band together and get their voice heard. After college, many of us will be forced to grow up and leave our rabble-rousing years behind us.

Students who get angry and get organized simply don’t get appreciated enough on this campus. In a time when it’s much easier to get on the Internet and complain about issues in a blog or with a Facebook group, some students are still doing it the old fashioned way.

The group Students Against Silence has taken notice of genocide and dedicated themselves to raising awareness of such issues on campus. They are one of the student organizations that have made themselves into an almost constantly visible presence on campus. Thank you.

Another very visible group on campus, the Students Against Sulfide Mining, spent countless hours of their time working on a local concern. They were angered by a situation and decided to do everything in their power to try and stop it. Thank you.

The NMU Political Review (NMUPR) has taken local, national and international political issues and brought them to the campus masses through a well-researched student publication. This group of impassioned students saw the need and opportunity to educate and seized it. Thank you.

The NMUPR sponsored a debate yesterday, between the College Democrats and College Republicans. I also applaud both the College Democrats and the College Republicans for their willingness to participate in such a debate and for bringing their opinions on major political topics to the forefront.

These are just some of the groups on campus making an impact. I also thank all the other student organizations not mentioned previously for getting angry and getting involved.

We stand on the eve of the upcoming presidential election. This election will determine how the next four years pan out for us. Obviously, to anyone who has been paying attention, there is much more at stake than just an office. The more young people that care, the more we are able to impact our own future.

So I challenge you, fellow students, to not be apathetic about the world around you. If you’ve got an opinion, get angry and get heard. Join a student organization or start your own. Protest. Rally. Vote. Even write a letter to the editor of The North Wind.

If you’re reading this, you already cared enough to pick up a student newspaper and to stay interested enough read someone else’s opinion all the way through. So now pull yourself up off the couch and away from the computer screen.

Get angry. Stand out. Speak up.