During the past four years we as a country have endured many things. Education funds have been cut. Unemployment has increased, so have the costs of health care and gas. Environmental problems have been ignored. Our federal deficit is at record high and the average income of Americans has dropped drastically, adding more than 1 million people to the list of those living below the poverty line.

Yes, all of those problems resulted from the brilliant actions of our president, who during these painful years managed to ignore millions of protesters out on the streets begging for the lives of innocent Iraqis.

We do have to admit though, that the very inarticulate George W. Bush did make us laugh as he stumbled with his words in almost all of his speeches.

Italians were confused during Bush’s visit to Rome in 2001 when he said, “I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe – I believe what I believe is right.”
Brazilians were shocked when he asked the President of Brazil, Fernando Cardoso, if they too had blacks there. People around the world couldn’t believe it – this was the President of the United States of America.

Despite his grammatical errors and confusing statements, he managed to brainwash a large part of the population of this country. Recent polls show Bush with more than 50 percent of the votes.

Were these four painful years in vain? Will we have to go through all these –or even worse –again?

Bush has achieved what politicians have been trying to do for years – turn young people into voters.

I had never seen my young friends so interested in politics like they are now. And I had never seen a student writing a note on her planner that read, “register to vote by the end of the week.”

Of course Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 has made the case stronger and has contributed to that, but Bush certainly was the main actor in this sudden change.

Through his selfish and ignorant decisions Bush has showed our youth that their voice matters and that they are the last hope of this country.

A Harvard study found that 62 percent of college students say they plan to vote this year, compared with 50 percent with such intentions four years ago. And another poll showed that 53 percent of registered voters ages 18-30 said they’d given “quite a bit of thought” to the election, compared with 35 percent in 2000, according to a recent article in the USA Today.

In the same article, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, Kenneth Stroupe, said “Promises, promises. This is not the first year young people promised to vote.”

But I think he will be surprised this time. During these four years, young people did more than just promise and complain. They went out on the streets to protest and they became part of history. Now it is time for them to make history.

With an election that is expected to be so close, I think it is fair to say that the future of this country lies in the hands of our youth.