Last Sunday, my 74-year-old grandfather said to me, "Adam, I'm sorry that the first time you were old enough to vote, you wasted it."

After allowing his comment to sink in, I found myself shocked that a man his age (who has lived long enough to see both Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Centers attacked) would say something that ignores one of the very fundamentals of freedom -- something for which so many people during his lifetime have fought and died.

The French (that's right, French) philosopher Voltaire said, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it." And that seems to me the very idea on which this country's First Amendment was founded.

Apparently, my grandfather has forgotten this. On Nov. 2, millions of young people participated in one of the most crucial events our country provides us, and in spite of what my Republican-voting grandfather might have said, none of it was "wasted".

A waste would have been not voting. A waste would have been not caring and not taking up a cause. A waste would be if people just gave up on the system, left the country and quit politics altogether because they became so despondent and disenchanted with the process.

It is no small wonder the perception of Democrats is that they are soft and weak, and now it looks like some of us are proving the critics right. Now that our candidate lost the election, some of us want to turn tail and run to Canada because we think that will make it easier to take.

A few weeks ago, we were fighting hard and were ready to claim victory, but now in the face of adversity, we're running to our rooms crying because we didn't win one election.

I will be the first to admit that it was a big loss, and the idea of fleeing the country sounded good at first. But it's been a week, and now it's time to get over it, stop pouting and start fighting again. Cancel your plane ticket to Bali; stick around, keep fighting, keep working together with people of all views to create a country and a world where we can all be happy no matter who is in office.

The political parties, the networks and the special interest groups are more than happy to watch us argue amongst ourselves because it distracts us from the actual injustices taking place. The 8-year-old "Shut up -- No, you shut up" argument has to disappear.

We are not two opposite ends of a spectrum. We are not CNN"s "Crossfire" -- where one side is wrong and the other is right.

We are a whole spectrum of views and ideas, and we need to start seeing things that way: not in opposition to one another, but in cooperation.

We need to open our ears, our eyes and our minds to people with differing views and start creating our own effective solutions, instead of choking on the ones being fed to us. We need to stop listening to television's talking heads, who operate behind the facade of "fair and balanced" journalism, while they line their own pockets. (I'm talking about all of them, not just the channel that uses that slogan.)

Plato, who is smarter then I am, said, "The greatest price of refusing to participate in politics is being governed by your inferiors."

The people who are running this country are not the best we have to offer. The best we have to offer is right here, staying in America, in our classrooms, out on our streets and standing right next to you. This government was meant to be a government of the people, and it's about time we start holding it accountable to that idea.

Not in two years, not in four, not somebody else, not some other place. You and me -- right here, right now.

Adam Wright is a journalism senior. He can be reached at adam.wright@asu.edu