The Issues at Hand Published Sept. 26, 2008 By Tyler Tucker 52nd Fighter Wing SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- With election campaigns in full swing, the people of the United States are starting to take notice of the candidates and what they have to offer. Everyone, including the nation's youth, has their own ideas about what they want to happen and their own issues that they want to see addressed. Even though they cannot vote, they still want to see change. Tehya Fencik, a sophomore at Bitburg High School, has been following the campaigns closely. "The candidate that is elected represents our country and will get to decide what our lives are going to be like during college," said Ms. Fencik. The issue on most teenagers' minds is the war in Iraq, and understandably so. The war in Iraq is something that is directly related to the teenage generation, Generation Y. Teenagers of today have matured enough to understand what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. They are interested in how the issue will be resolved. Mitch Stephenson and Dantè Kelly-McAuliffe, both seniors at Bitburg High School, explained that this was the most important issue to them. "It affects the people close to the military, like the people of [the Bitburg-Spangdahlem] area," Mr. Stephenson said. This controversial issue is a topic in discussion boards across the nation. "Now that we are in this situation, we need to find a way to resolve it," said Mr. Kelly-McAuliffe. Other issues that are important to Generation Y are education and how the candidates propose the country become more environmentally friendly. Behind the war in Iraq, these items have risen to the forefront of youth's concerns. According to Ms. Fencik, the idea of the country going "green" has been around for a while, but Generation Y has been the leading force in getting the country to do something about it. Ms. Fencik declared that, "we only have one country and we need to take care of it." As the price for fuel continues to climb, the country is going to have to do something about going "green." How these candidates relay their ideas about it will be important to their campaigns. Teenagers are also worried about America's education system. "Since I am going to college and college is vastly overpriced, I think that something needs to be done about that," said Mr. Stephenson about his education worries. "Public schooling needs to be reformed as well, because there is no competition among teachers. We need a program that forces the teacher to compete for jobs so the students have the best teachers possible." This has been a worry for some years now, and in this election parents and teenagers alike are looking at what the candidates will do to change the American education system. Now that the candidates are going into crunch time and the debates are about to begin, America and all its citizens are gearing up to hear their plans. Ms. Fencik, Mr. Stephenson and Mr. Kelly-McAuliffe are waiting for the debates to decide just exactly who they will vote for. They all want to hear the plans the candidates have for these issues.