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A View from Iowa
"The stereotype is that teens don’t care about politics."
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By Kate Coenen
I started getting interested in politics when I was in eighth grade, mostly from listening to a CD by Rage Against the Machine, and something clicked for me.
Now I’m a junior in high school, and I’m even more political than my parents are. The stereotype is that teens don’t care about politics, but that’s definitely not the case with my family. I mean, my father is much more passionate about baseball than he is about elections. My mother would rather work on her scrapbooks than watch campaign coverage on CNN.
Creston only has about 10,000 people, but it’s an important place for the presidential campaigns because of the Iowa Caucus. I’ve already met four of the candidates in person.
I feel lucky to have the chance to meet all these candidates and get an idea of what they’re like in person. The only frustrating thing is that I won’t be able to vote in the elections this November, since I don’t turn 18 until January 2005.
Instead what I’ll be doing is trying to get other people involved, and encourage them to vote for the candidate I support. I don’t want to sound like a political advertisement, but I should admit that I’m now wearing a John Kerry button on my punk rock jacket. It’s true I won’t be able to vote for him. But at least I can try to convince my friends and my parents that they should.
- Kate Coenen is a junior at Creston High School in Creston, Iowa
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