Ask my parents why they decided to move here, and they’ll give you a handbag of generic reasons: for my education; they’ve always wanted to live by the beach; it’s a growing, tranquil city. But if you give it just enough time to find out our dog’s name, you wouldn’t know whether to give them a pity pat or to hide your snickering. Hint: his name is Dawson Creek. 

You can’t blame them, though. Las Vegas isn’t the ideal city to raise a kid or accelerate your career, unless you’re majoring in bartending, gambling, or alcoholism. Some of my friends and family have mastered all of them.

 In retrospect, it’s not hard to imagine why my parents decided on making the 2,500-mile exodus to this small, coastal town.

Regardless, North Carolina is not without its problems. In less than two years, the state government has processed, debated, and amended a number of bills that have proposed drastic changes in basic human rights. 

Does Amendment One sound familiar? It was a bill whose purpose was to limit domestic unions, regardless of sexual orientation, yet masqueraded as “The Marriage Amendment” by conservative propaganda. While it had no aim for changing the state’s definition of marriage (as it already had its mind set on the matter), the bill passed with 61 percent approval.  

Let’s take another look at a slightly more radical bill: Defense of Religion Act of 2013. As its name implies, this bill would have declared an official state religion that would nullify the federal government’s power of saying otherwise. From its first section: “the Constitution of the USA does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” Contradictory to the NC General Assembly’s theory, the Supreme Court found their bill unconstitutional-a rare ruling, regarding most religious-based legislature. 

Not seeing the general trend? How about this keeper: Senate Bill 667 or Equalize Voter Rights. If a state cult wasn’t enough of a worry, then your parents should sweat over not claiming you as a dependent for tax exemption if you choose to register to vote. 

Birthday coming up soon? Plan accordingly: “Mom, dad, I know you’re already stressing about the mortgage and your bills, but would you mind paying $2,500 so I can vote?” They might coax you into asking for a car instead.

Regardless of political orientation, there’s something clearly at stake that these bills attempt to diminish-our rights as a citizen.

Right-Wing Authoritarians can’t take all the blame (they’ve been around too long). The answer lies in this generation. Its mutation of monikers-from the dumbest, apathetic, to instant gratification-have failed to address what’s really plaguing us: hesitation. 

With the pressure of school, signing up for aid, maintaining a job, and living on our own, why bother complicating the mix with politics? Surely we can leave the fight to the activists. That’s the trap we set ourselves up for. Then the Bystander Effect comes into play, and we dig our heads back into our textbooks and wait for the outcome. 

Avoiding a problem was the only thing I learned from my hometown, a playground of charlatans that capitalize on escapism. Streets filled with crude imitations of the world and endless drink refills from cocktail waitresses. Vegas is just a 24/7 carnival fun house. The closest anyone came to politics was the black jack table, and Congress might as well be the name of a hotel. 

Whatever party slightly aligns with our political beliefs, there seems to be a tendency to cave in with their entire platform. We’re bombarded by every other angle of our lives that concurring with the louder, more extreme perspective of our ideals seems enough to satiate that facet.

However, leaning toward a tentative stance is more akin to silence. It might be easier to avoid intervening with the senators and activists’ squabble, but does levying a $2,500 burden on your parents seem like an easy decision? Does outlawing domestic unions, for the sake of agreeing with a conservative policy, sound like freedom? 

Rather than thinking, what do the conservatives or liberals have to say about this issue? Think, what’s at stake for everyone here? How do my choices bolster or limit other people’s rights? Such umbrella ideologies should serve more as a jump start rather than a guiding hand for every decision. 

We need to climb out of our shell of being the Hesitant Generation to avoid dwindling into a generation of silence.