Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Buzz, or Buzz-Saw?

From this morning's New York Times, but it might as readily have appeared in the Watauga Democrat: "...state election officials say registration of new young voters is coming in at levels they have not seen in years."

"Polls in the spring and summer from the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Pew Research Center and MTV all found that young people say they plan to vote at a rate that will far eclipse the low-water mark of four years ago. The pool of potential young voters is substantial -- about 40.6 million Americans ages 18 to 29, or one in five eligible voters, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or Circle, a nonprofit research group that has concentrated on the youth vote."

Said an official of Circle, "It seems like so much of it [interest in this election] is influenced by the kind of buzz that's out there, and this year, there's a real buzz." But buzz about WHAT? The article, like a lot of these young voters, is clueless.

Not once does the NYTimes reporter mention the 'd' word, "draft," which has a magical ability to concentrate the mind of 18-year-olds.

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