by Nick Hermosilla ’19

The 2020 Presidential Election will be the first election where all of our class will be able to vote. And it goes without saying that the upcoming election will be the most contentious and monumental election in recent American history. If we want to act as good citizens and patriots being involved in our democracy, then it’s up to each of us to educate ourselves about the political climate of our country and the world.

It’s important to learn about current news and relevant events so that we all are able to both understand discussions about policy going on between candidates and form our own opinions about them. Just voting based off of who your family or friends are voting for or purely based off of candidates’ political party isn’t enough.

I know not everyone is actually interested in politics or international relations; it’s hard to pay attention when we have a lot more important and more interesting things going on in life, but it’s the job of every person living in this democracy to participate in it. And in order to effectively participate you need to be informed.

Trying to be informed can be simple things like watching summaries of recent news on social
media or reading articles online; you don’t need to watch CNN or NBC or read the Washington Post every day.

Making sure you at least know about what’s important in the news will allow you to form your own opinions about it. But it’s also important to understand different perspectives on various issues to avoid polarization.

Don’t just use one source for news or agree with everything a certain politician says. Moderation is important to ensuring that we’re all able to agree on key issues as a country. Especially now, being able to unify and compromise is going to be important for our country going into the future.