Editor�s Note

My mom raised me to have a healthy sense of skepticism and to question authority. I have her to thank, in fact, for my father�s all too accurate prediction that my mouth would get me in trouble one day.

By the time I was in high school, my skeptical nature was so fully developed that I was questioning school rules that I thought were unjust and even openly mocking assignments and school projects. I should have taken my father�s warning more to heart, but my drive to question authority had developed much faster than my ability to shut up.

My first serious run-in with authority was brought on by my involvement in the world of politics. It was a presidential election year, and officials at my school thought that it would be a good civics lesson for the kids to hold their own campaigns for the two national candidates.

It�s something that�s done in schools all across the US every time there�s an election, but for some reason, I had a problem with it. It struck me as pointless and a silly waste of time. I mean, who cared what a bunch of high school kids thought about a national election? Our votes didn�t count for anything.

I enlisted a group of friends to start a write-in campaign for a famous comic-strip duo � a penguin and a cat. We made posters, wrote a platform and planned campaign strategy. We were a force to be reckoned with. It was too good to last.

It wasn�t long before the school�s PA system was crackling with a barely intelligible message, summoning me to the principal�s office. Having never been in serious trouble, the cold-sweat, wobbly kneed walk down the hallway was the longest I�d ever had.

What I faced in that office taught me a valuable lesson about the real nature of politics. Apparently, somebody had spilled the beans about our planned guerilla campaign even before we�d put up one poster.

As scared as I was that I�d be transported off to the gulag of detention, the principal was very nice. He asked that I not go ahead with my campaign � the teachers were worried that we might actually win. We spoke for quite a while about big issues like the need for social order, freedom of speech and having a sense of humour � or at least irony.

In the true spirit of politics, we eventually reached a compromise that allowed my team our write-in candidate in exchange for us running a much quieter campaign. We ended up coming in a distant third.

We learn some of the greatest lessons in life by accident. This was certainly true of my high school political career. Not only did I learn something important about the side of politics that we as citizens and voters all see, it was also my first exposure to the back-room deals where political fortunes are truly made or lost.

Maybe most importantly, it taught me that both of my parents could be right at the same time � something I�d doubted up till then. It is important to question authority. But questioning anything involves opening your mouth, which really can get you in trouble.

Sean Vale
Editor
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