My son, who is in the eleventh grade, has long supported Senator Obama, but now he is even making phone calls on behalf of the Obama campaign. It does my heart good to see youth get excited and even hopeful about politics in this way. Sure, my son didn’t grow up on Watergate and defeat in Vietnam, as I did, but his generation was exposed to other things that could be expected to cause cynicism, namely the scandals surrounding Clinton’s sex life and Congress’s ridiculous decision to impeach him. The way that Bush came to the White House the first time or the U.S. started the war in Iraq could also be expected to make youth feel cynical and powerless. Instead though, there are people like my son who have decided that cynicism has no place in their lives or this country’s political future. Good for them.