America has spoken. A Nov. 4 National Public Radio broadcast claimed 21 percent of voters based their vote on morality and cited issues like abortion and gay marriage as being the key moral issues. While I applaud America for taking morality into consideration, I am disappointed Americans have such a narrow conception of what it means to be moral. We have defined morality in terms of sex.

Forgive me for being crude, but this obsession with pelvic morality is taking a lot of emphasis away from other pressing moral issues of this time. It is imperative that society learn to broaden its worldview beyond the body. For example, we know genocide is occurring in Sudan and no one is taking a stand. Samantha Powers elaborates on this emergency in the Oct. 4 article "It's Not Enough To Call It Genocide" by Samantha Powers in TIME magazine. She explains people are being systematically slaughtered in Darfur — and area roughly the size of Texas. She gives a particularly chilling witness account of a soldier picking up a 1-year-old child, throwing him in the air and shooting him on the way down. This was not an isolated event. Clearly this massacre is immoral, yet we refuse to take action.

There is a global poverty crisis. The Center for Global Development recently ranked the 21 richest countries on their commitment to development. In the aid category, the United States ranked only 19 of the 21. This is also immoral. On the domestic front, Americans are turning their backs on the very children they are fighting so hard to bring into the world. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, one in three children in the United States live in low-income families. This is deplorable, it is immoral, it is inexcusable and it needs to be addressed as a moral issue.

Yet there is hope. Consider this my manifesto to my fellow Americans. You have spoken. You voted on moral concerns, so the burden is on you to hold our government accountable. But both sides need to think about the way they see morality.

To my friends on the right: Sexual morality is important, and if this is your passion I respect that. But it is not enough. If you ignore the poor and disenfranchised then your fight is no longer noble, but incomplete, inconsistent and hypocritical. Your duty is not over at the time of birth. This election has been called the election for the religious right. Well, the Bible says pretty explicitly that to whom much is given much is expected. I know no one wants the poverty that is prevalent in our society, and I understand how easy it is to disengage from the situation if you are not intentionally contributing to and perpetuating the problem. Yes, poverty has become systemic. However, you are part of that system. Therefore, you are responsible.

To my colleagues on the left: I have noticed hesitancy among you to talk about morality because of religious connotation and fear of alienating secular voters. Get over it. Now is not the time to be divided over formalities. Many of the issues important to the political left are just as moral as those important to the right and there is nothing wrong with framing them as such.

There is a unique opportunity for collaboration here. I know people on both sides who value morality. They may see morality a little differently, but what is important is both sides care. Call me an idealist, but if we can work on better articulating the way we care we may be able to find some common ground. If we can find that common ground then maybe we can take action to make a positive change. I certainly hope so, but it will only happen if we accept shared responsibility for the morality of this country as a whole.

You spoke, America. The time has come to walk behind your words.

Benesh is a junior political science and international affairs major.

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