Titan Voice: We honor others with our votes
CSUF President Framroze Virjee will vote to honor the man who sacrificed everything for family: his father
Cal State Fullerton President Fram Virjee (Photo courtesy of CSUF News Media Services)
By Framroze Virjee |
PUBLISHED: October 8, 2020 at 12:41 p.m. | UPDATED: October 8, 2020 at 12:41 p.m.
Paradoxically, I was born a citizen, but I am an immigrant to the United States, having crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Mary before my sixth birthday. That grand dame was the first ship I ever boarded that was not captained by my father. Just 5 feet, 8 inches tall on a good day, Dad somehow loomed larger than he was, especially on the bridge of the cargo ships with salty decks and rocking bunkrooms that served first as my cradle and then as my schoolyard prior to our move to the states. The earliest visage of my father is of him standing tall on that bridge, with scrambled eggs and rain slickers, navigating his cargo, his crew, and his family through gale-force winds and ship-sinking seas.
Strong. Confident. In charge.
And yet, much like the whiskered mammals ship captains are likened to and nicknamed after — sea lions — the majesty of Dad's powers transitioned when he was confronted with the mysteries of dry land. He was a tremendous father, to be sure, and his Horacio Alger journey as an orphan on the streets of India to homeowner in the suburbs of Palos Verdes offers much evidence that he navigated the ups and downs of life on American soil almost as well as he negotiated the crests and troughs of the open sea.
But as I mourn his passing just last week at age 89 while concurrently preparing our campus for what could be the most impactful election of our lifetime, I cannot help but contemplate the one facet of American life that Dad was either unable or unwilling to conquer: the responsibility to vote. When I asked him why he didn't seek his citizenship and vote, he really had no reason. Was he unsure of how to become a citizen? Was he worried he would not be accepted? Did he wonder if his vote mattered?
Granted, as both an immigrant and a person of color, Dad's path to citizenship would not have been without obstacles. Many might have been deliberately placed in his path to ensure he never earned voting rights. Indeed, historically underrepresented communities have borne the brunt of the social injustices baked into our nation's history. And while that leads to everything from health care disparities to inequitable access to quality education, it begins with voter repression – in all of its disturbing forms.
Whether the message Dad too often received in our new home (that he was lesser; that his white wife should not be on his brown arm; that his kids with crazy names like "Framroze" were not welcome in the schools) was the reason he did not think himself worthy of voting is difficult to know. What is clear is that he was not alone in his sideline stance during election years. In 2016, for example, less than 15% of eligible college students voted.
That abysmal number became the impetus for Cal State Fullerton to begin year-round voter registration programs, motivating students to become not only voters, but informed voters; to not only widen the path to the polls for all Titans, but to obliterate the systematic obstruction of voting rights for historically marginalized communities.
Thanks in large part to these efforts, in the fall of 2018, CSUF registered more than 2,600 new voters in the months leading to the election (a feat that made us No. 1 in the CSU in terms of number of students registered) and we improved our voter turnout rate by over 200% in comparison to 2014. Today, we are currently again atop the Ballot Bowl rankings as the California campus with the highest student voter registrations, but a recent self-assessment tells us that there are still too many among us who have not taken the time to register, and others still who have the right to vote but inexplicably do not plan on exercising it — either because they feel that California is already decided on the presidential election or because they don't fully understand the power of local government and the need for their voice in it. And then there are the folks who, perhaps like Dad was, are intimidated by the process or feel disenfranchised to the point of disinterest.
But the unalterable truth is, Dad's voice always mattered. To me and our family. To our friends and neighbors. To his crew and officers. And although he could never quite see it, to the country in which he lived most of his life.
And so, I say to each of you, your voice matters too. Now more than ever. Don't be intimidated. Don't wait. Raise your voice. Share and wield its power with the same courage and conviction I saw in my father every time he stood tall on the bridge in the face of an unrelenting storm.
For this nation is now your ship. It is your turn to shift the wheel in the direction we want and need to sail; your time to change the world by exercising your right and obligation to vote. If not for yourself and your community, then for all those — past, present, and future — who do not have the right to vote or have been made to believe their voice doesn't matter.
And I will be there with you, voting for your future, voting for our Titan family, and voting in honor of the man who sacrificed everything so I could be the first in our family to both cross a commencement stage and stand in a voting booth. I would never presume to suggest how you should vote, but I will boldly entreat you with a full heart to register, inform yourself, and VOTE.
In doing so, I hope to somehow honor who Dad was and how I loved him and love him still.
Framroze Virjee formerly served as the executive vice chancellor and general counsel of the California State University, as well as secretary to the CSU Board of Trustees. In 2019, he became the university's sixth president, taking the permanent seat after a 14-month interim role. He and his wife, Julie, run Yambi Rwanda, a nonprofit organization in Rwanda that seeks to help overcome poverty and the trauma of genocide through education and opportunity.
Framroze Virjee
More in Local News
Orange County adds second mass vaccination site at Soka University
Huntington Beach City Council juggles contentious housing development, Capitol riot and mask fiasco
OC sheriff loses appeal, still on hook to reduce jail population by half because of COVID-19