I have an article that I wrote back before the 2004 election that details my response to people who claim that high school students are useless on campaigns (or at least that is what I remember it was a response to.)

If nothing else, this is a good reflection of my writing style a few years ago:

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There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t hear “Hey Nick, How many Freshmen did you get to vote today?” Other than the fact that these are generally republicans, who seem to find criticizing the democrats more productive than making their own club, a valid point is raised. How can a High Schooler, in this case a Democrat, really change this country, and why is it worth the time?

The reason we are so determined is that we know that there are major issues at risk in this election.

We know that this unnecessary war is tearing this country apart. We have heard the story of a friend of mine, who attends Marquette University, whose High School Girlfriend’s parents made “too much money” to qualify for adequate financial aid, so she had to join the National Guard last summer. Two weekends a month and two weeks a year (or whatever else they promised, see back page of this newspaper) sounded worth the money she got, until 3 weeks after joining she received word that her group was being deployed in Iraq. Before she went on the plane, she called my friend and said “Work as hard as you can to get someone in office who will bring me and my friends home.” He is currently a staff member at the campaign, she is clutching an assault rifle in Iraq.

The war is not the only reason we fight. We know that this president, if reelected, will appoint judges that will take away womens rights and a level playing field for all Americans to go into college. We know that if this president gets another term students from Whitefish Bay, like my buddy’s old girlfriend, will slip through the cracks and not receive enough financial aid to stay in college. We know that 4 more years of this administration will result in an even worse job market, so as soon as we leave college there will be no job (and no health care) for us. We know that with George W. Bush’s continued leadership, we will be paying down a huge national debt. be in an even worse environmental crisis, and have no allies in this world to truly fight terrorism.

Yet why do students who cannot vote make a difference?

Walk into a campaign office and you will see a bunch of older folks working the phones. I have never met so many nice senior citizens in my life while working on these campaigns, but they are deathly slow at making phone calls. Even those who are getting older start to slow down their pace. They stop doing things that actually get votes, like canvasing and literature drops, and start investing in yard signs, bumper stickers, and buttons that don’t sway anyone. Students our age can walk faster, talk faster, and get more done… faster! We generally have more energy (However, I can show you some 75 year olds who would knock your socks off when it comes to campaigning), so lets rephrase the question: “Hey Nick, How many Votes did your Freshmen get recently” and I can tell them “A Ton”