Politik

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10664224?nclick_check=1

I really do have better things to do than to read the useless bickering under the comment feature of Internet articles. But I don't know quite why I keep reading them anyway.

I am not fond of the Mercury News and never will be. As it turns out, the dominant package on the front page of today's newspaper featured a review of last night's presidential debate, tossed in with quotes and analysis from various high school students on debate teams. A couple of them turned out to be from my school -- people I know fairly well, as a mater of fact.

As an editor-in-chief of the journalism staff at my school, I've had enough experience with journalism to understand the crucial importance of controlling bias and credibility in articles. I actually read the student quotes (accompanied with student mug shots) before even bothering to read the article. In general, the students ruled Barack Obama as the winner of last night's debate. Of course, in order to show a somewhat fair representation, there were a couple of pro-McCain quotes as well, and plus, to my surprise they included C's sister -- even though she is my brother's age and I doubt she has been the champion of any debate tournament yet.

So I saw the paper copy on my kitchen table this afternoon and thought, "Well, good for them!" I didn't give the article a second thought until I spontaneously decided to look up the article online.

That's when I decided to read the comment board.

I swear, some of those comments irked me to no end. Those who commented were presumably adults, and they spewed out comments along the lines of "SJMN is complete liberal leftist bull[bleep], deliberately picking out high school students who can't even pay mortgages or vote to assess these debates. What a joke." Funnily enough, pretty much all of them were McCain/Palin supporters.

To set the record straight, I do not like the SJMN, so I am not defending them. I am defending my classmates.

FIRST OF ALL: You adults are the one who got us in this mess. Oh wait, who voted for eight years of Bush? Do you really expect of any of us to believe that you really know so much more about what's the best way to go?

AND BY THE WAY: These aren't just high schoolers. I don't know about the other kids, but I know for a fact that A, T, and B all debate at a national level. And for those who still don't understand what I'm trying to get at: these students all spend hours preparing cases and keeping up with current events in order to compete at the level that they are at. Do you really think they are simply just following Mommy and Daddy's lead? A, T, and B are all National Merit Semifinalists, T is one crazy Einstein who got 5's on all eight AP tests he took last year, and these three are all probably planning to pursue political science at some top notch university next fall. Somehow, I'm not quite convinced that the ones who left those comments truly understand who the hell they are dealing with.

ALSO: What the hell is so despicable about reporting the analyses of these high schoolers? Shouldn't you be optimistic -- Hey! These kids actually care about national issues! Besides, although they cannot vote for this election, has anyone stopped to think that at this crucial moment in American history, whatever choice YOU make is going to affect this entire generation indefinitely? Shouldn't they be able to have a say as well, since it seems like nobody cares about what these "children" think?

To be quite honest, I am not fond of either Obama or McCain. I don't think either of them have an answer to this screwed up economy, and Palin scares the beejezus out of me. I think after college, I'll just move to France or China for good. Oh and by the way, I hate AP Literature.