and I'm not sorry.
I convinced our department student assistant to go from "no vote" to voting for - as he put it - "My guy, Obama."
I didn't try to influence him one way or the other about who he should vote for. I just pressured him to vote. I gave him the disapproving Professor look. I asked him why he wasn't voting. He said "I just don't vote. It seems like a waste of my time."
I asked him how he'd feel about a Romney presidency. I pointed out that even if California is sewn up for Obama, there's still those ballot initiatives that could affect his education and my job, and perhaps he should think about that.
He's young, Latino, an undergraduate student, and he was apathetic. But he said he'd think about it. That was last Thursday evening, the last time I was at campus.
Today I went in to get something from the department office and he was there. I said to him, "Well, did you vote?"
He said, "No, but I'm going to this afternoon, and I got about twenty other people to vote for my guy Obama today."
Now, that is an effective use of a guilt trip.
(And of course I shook his hand and told him thank you for voting - are you kidding me? He went from apathetic to activist in one weekend!)