As a child, I was exposed to a very meager lifestyle. My father was a college student through the years of my early childhood (1982-1989), and my mother juggled two jobs while taking care of my older sister and myself while helping put my father through college. We lived in subsidized housing for about seven years and received food stamps and welfare until I was seven years old. Life was hard for us, but we managed to get by and make ends meet. I witnessed, as a toddler, the effort my parents put into trying to make us happy, but they never mentioned or acknowledged the fact that we were literally POOR. My father worked as a grocery sacker while my mother managed to hold down two jobs and have side jobs to help feed the family. Matters never got any better in the Banda family until my dad had graduated from college and had a "real" job. The years that followed were significantly better, but that never changed the fact that my parents were never big on politics. They knew what was going on around them because of the media, but other than that, government was only a word mentioned in school. In my short life span, I have lived through three presidents, George H.W. Bush, William (Bill) Clinton, George W. Bush, and now the re-election of President Bush. Other than Desert Storm, their "sexual relations," decisions to increase gas prices, the fall of the Twin Towers, and the war that followed, I honestly admit to the fact that I was extremely unaware of what was going on in this country and how it would affect me.
             If learning how our government worked depended on me and my own will to learn all that there is to know, I would be completely dumbfounded and would not know where to begin. Through the help of my government and history teachers throughout my grade school years, I have become more aware and enlightened about my environment. Though my parents did not push politics or government at all, I took it upon myself t...