politics... don't intrique me much either but please learn and vote

i just want to start by letting you know that i am no politician or political genius and by no means want to become a politician. but i will tell you that i am trying to learn more so that i know what i am doing and can vote for my beliefs. and i am not going to force my beliefs on anyone in this post or even share them i am merely encouraging you to become informed on the topic. somehow at school in english class today (everything seems to happen in that class), we got on the topic of the election. here are some of the points that were brought up by myself and others.

the most important topic for this election is not the war. or should i say not just the war. the most important topic is always the good of the people. so first off we should not merly vote for someone because they are for or against the war. another point made was that voting for someone because they are the first women to have a shot at the presidency, the first african american to have a shot at the presidency, or because they are a pow was not a legitimate reason. but before you even begin to look at those campaigning, you should figure out what you beliefs are. once you have established your beliefs, you can compare them to those running for office which can be hard. you have to be able to decipher through the deceit and codes of a politicians language to figure out where he stands on some issues.

but once again, since i do not know much more than this, the best advice i can give is to tell you to study and learn more and vote. if everyone thought that they did not need to vote because they didn't feel like it and their one vote wouldn't matter, then we would have no votes cast. it is the greatest privilege in this country that so many take for granted. and according to these stats many people have:

listed in this order: year of vote, percent of 18-24 year olds who voted, and then percent of adults 25 and over who voted
1972-- 52% ---- 68%
1976-- 45% ---- 66%
1980-- 43% ---- 66%
1984-- 44% ---- 67%
1988-- 39% ---- 64%
1992-- 46% ---- 67%
1996-- 36% ---- 61%
2000-- 36.5% -- 64%
2004-- 42.3% -- 70%

those are some extremely sad percentages. so please learn more and vote.

p.s. i am not trying to insult your intelligence with this post. i am merely trying to tell you to start thinking about politics more if you are not already.

p.p.s. apparently ralph nader has joined the election race once again