Rick Perry's "Strong"

If you're a frequent YouTuber, you may have already seen the video "Strong". Strong is a campaign ad for Rick Perry, a potential GOP candidate for the 2012 elections. It's gone viral, with over 7 million views at the time of this post. In the video Rick Perry goes from topic to topic that seemingly share no connection. At first he says that he's "not ashamed to admit" he's a good Christian. Then he says there's something wrong with our country when gays can openly serve in the military, but kids can't celebrate Christmas in school. Um, I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to celebrate Christmas in school. Yes, the schools want to be sensitive to every culture and every religion (that's the only way to prevent possible lawsuits) but last I checked I was still allowed to wish my classmates a Merry Christmas. As for the issue about gays in the military, you'd think Rick Perry would want as many people as possible to serve our country so he doesn't have to. Then he goes on to say we need to stop "Obama's war on religion". For the last freaking time, Obama is a CHRISTIAN. Having Hussein as a middle name doesn't make you a Muslim, and being Muslim does not make you a threat to our country or to Christian values. On the bright side, there has been some absolutely hilarious parodies done of Strong. So please Rick Perry, make sure you know what you're talking about BEFORE you decide to voice your opinions on the world wide web. It's called world wide for a reason.

The 2012 Election

So this is a pretty big topic. No one really seems to know exactly what's going on right now, but it's extremely important. The guy we've had sitting in the White House for the past four years, Barack Obama, is up for re-election. If he wins the election he gets another four years of employment. If he doesn't win the election, we get a new president who will be either republican, independent, or one of the small parties in between. Every state votes for the GOP (Grand Old Party aka Republican) candidate that they would like to go against Obama. The candidates to choose from at the moment are Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry. Michelle Bachman, the only female candidate, just dropped out. There are certain states that matter more to the GOP nominees in terms of campaigning. The #1 state to watch is arguably Iowa. Iowa is one of the only states to have a caucus, and it's the first state to vote on which nominee they want to be the GOP candidate. Iowa represents the majority of Americans-average, middle class, and not necessarily educated about the candidates. The Iowa caucus is so important that candidates will even drop out if they don't do well, such as Michelle Bachman. More later on the candidates.

Why you have no excuse for being uninformed

Teenagers are supposed to be the people in our country who don't really serve a purpose. We go to school, we hang out with our friends, we eat, sleep, watch TV, contribute to the internet. This is how it's always been. The adults are in charge, and things are that way for a reason. They have more experience and are physically and mentally more capable than we are. Well, at least some of them.
But just because we don't have to worry about the world right now doesn't mean we'll never have to. To us it doesn't matter that the full retirement age is being raised. But what about in forty or so years when we've all got kids in college and we want to retire? Won't it matter to us then? And what happens if we don't think of an immediate solution to global warming? The teenagers today are the adults of tomorrow and we have to inherit everything -the good and the bad- that the adults decide to leave for us. Which is why it's crucial that we all start to understand things that happen in our world now. Maybe if we learn from the mistakes our parents make we can prevent more bad things from happening. Or at least handle them better when they do happen.