I need to do something with that will impact my community. There are kids that have no desire to learn anything in school. The most important things in their lives are the opposite sex, music, fashion, how much cash they have, and the group of people they "hang" with. They have no knowledge of the sacrifices generations before them have made or the impact of the events spurring those to their sacrifices. Many do not believe history has any relevance to the world and occurrences of today. What is worse? They have no appreciation for those who wear our armed forces uniforms or farm our land. These kids are twenty-somethings that do not vote. There is another presidential election this year and there is a lot at stake: keeping Roe v. Wade intact (law passed making abortion legal. Gives women the choice) , bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan (yeah many people have forgotten the war on terror that began there more than eighteen months ago), improving education, improving our economy, lowering the number of families that are impoverished and/or working poor, seriously studying alternative energy sources, providing health care for seniors, and restructuring the health insurance industry, and revitalizing the healthcare industry so that the citizens of this nation have medical decisions made by medical doctors and not insurance executives who are looking at the cash flow and not the overall well being of the people they are supposed to be serving.

  By this point I sound like a left leaning liberal Democrat. Well, I am a female Republican, but that does not define me as a person. I choose candidates based on their voting histories on the issues that affect the nation. I will not vote for a politician that changes their mind with the wind. Nor will I vote for someone who is so entrenched in their personal moral and beliefs that they cannot see what is best for the country as a whole. This country was founded on freedom of choice, the freedom of religion-all religions no just Judeo-Christian based traditions, the freedom of speech, and the freedom to gather in peaceful demonstration for our fundamental beliefs. How do I explain the importance of these issues to people who have "checked out" of the electoral process or just don’t understand how the process works? The youth of today so apathetic about everything in their lives-they do not realize that the decisions they make today affect the nation in the future.

  If my parents’ generation had not protested so loudly and actively in the sixties and seventies then it would not be a hot political topic today. If my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ generations had not actively chosen to elect a progressive president like Franklin Roosevelt then the Great Depression could have been far worse and lasted much longer; there would also be no welfare, social security, Medicare, or Medicaid programs to care for the poor, elderly, and disabled-institutions that are taken for granted today. If minorities had not protested and had Brown v. Board of Ed not taken place, then schools and everything else in the southern United States would still be segregated and there would be no great leaders celebrated like Martin Luther King Jr. or African-American leaders like Colin Powell.

  The people of this country have gotten used to passing responsibility to the next person. Parents of violent, foul mouthed, and rebellious kids blame violent videogames and movies and vulgar music instead of censoring what their kids were allowed to watch and listen to. Parents blame a kid’s poor academic performance on the teacher’s ability to teach instead emphasizing the importance of education and homework completion at home. Parents blame professional athletes for their kids’ unsportsman like conduct when they are the ones threatening referees and coaches when their children’s team has a loss. They should be emphasizing the importance of being graceful competitors and recognizing an opponent’s strengths and building their children’s character rather than giving kids inferiority complexes.