First off, welcome back to Starkvegas. I hope each and every Bulldog had a relaxing summer and that classes are starting off the right way. As I write this, my mind is occupied by several things: our football team, terrible drivers all having Mississippi license plates and the upcoming presidential election. With that election right around the corner, you can bet you will be subject to all kinds of political pressure this fall. And at the forefront of this pressure will be the standard issues – the economy, immigration, abortion and so on. 
My challenge to you today is to truly focus on these issues and their substantiating ideas. Because I think there are several issues we cloud with bad thinking. I want you to really cut to the heart of them and then to vote for what you believe.  Doing this is more than just being educated. You’ll hear that a thousand times this fall.  You need to be educated on the issues, yes, but you need the right education on them. And you should go about getting it the right way. That’s where I’m going. Doing so allows you to reach conclusions in the most intellectually honest way possible.
Take abortion, for instance. Voters cite the economy as being the most important, but nothing gets the blood pumping like abortion.  The lines are typically drawn the same. Pro-choice proponents argue this is a matter of personal choice; a woman deserves the right to choose for herself what she does with her body. Whereas, pro-life advocates posit that abortion takes the life of a person, and as such is not a morally acceptable practice. I will not reveal my stance here, as that is not the purpose of this article, but I think that by choosing to argue the conventional way, as I described, both sides muddle the real issue beneath abortion: what is the embryo? Until this question is answered, the battle will continue to rage as it always has. For if the embryo is just a biological mass of tissue and cells, and not a person, then abortion should be permissible. Why not? But if the embryo contains human life, if it is an unborn person, then abortion is tragic and wrong. To me, this is where the discussion should take place. Instead, people beat each other up and get frustrated, then eventually someone falls prey to committing ad hominem, at which point any chance for meaningful dialogue is stamped out. 
Now, obviously, even if we stay on point and attempt to answer that basic question, differences will still surface. They always have, but we owe it to ourselves to get to the crux of this issue and then work from there.
Abortion is just one example, so I encourage you to examine yourself to make sure you are really treating each issue the right way. And when doing this, remember ideas matter simply because ideas have consequences.
They shape the way the world is, and thus the way we view the world.  The election merely highlights this. President Obama and Mitt Romney think very differently about many of the issues.  The trajectory of our country and our generation really is in our hands. So find out where you stand on the issues, and make a stand yourself.