Rock the Vote sent out our first Text Quiz. We asked:
A. John F. Kennedy
B. Theodore Roosevelt
C. Chester A Arthur

A resounding 87% of our SMS participants chose John F. Kennedy (JFK), but the correct answer was Theodore Roosevelt (only 8% knew that!).

To be fair it was something of a trick question. At the age of 43 JFK became the youngest person to be ELECTED president. However, Theodore Roosevelt beat Kennedy by one year when he, as Vice President, succeeded the deceased President William McKinley in 1901 and BECAME president at the age of 42.

When he was elected to his first full term as president the 46 year old Theodore Roosevelt would be 3 years older than JFK was at his first election, but it still remains that Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest person to ever become president of the United States of America.

Our third Choice, Chester A Arthur was just 14 days short of 52 when he became our nation's 21st president.

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[Editor's note: This post is one in a series from Rock the Trail Reporters on what kind of music inspires them to rock the vote.]

Soul singer Donny Hathaway is the reason I spell my name with a "y" and not an "ie." His songs reflect a lot of the troubles I go through while still making me feel hopeful. He deals with fear, acceptance, death, faith – things that aren't just on my mind, but on the minds of many young people. He sings and writes songs from a real and vulnerable place, motivating me to do the same with my writing.

If We Ruled the World

The more cynical side of me thinks nothing major will be different by 2015. People will be people, government will be government and Oprah will be king. But if I could have it my way (like another king says), it would go some thing like this (cue the wavy daydream lines):

The war is over. All over the world, mothers and fathers get their sons and daughters back from war zones. In my vision of 2015, the war will have been over for some years, but it won't be far from the minds of young Americans. We won't forget the time when we fought a war for the wrong reasons. The "vacuum effect" many pro-war supporters predicted never happened and the Iraqi government is self-sustaining. America is popular again and is no longer seen as the country equivalent of Britney Spears: the one hot girl that everyone admired until something went terribly wrong. We are no longer seen as the nation that hurts before it helps. We prove this to the world by starting at home: We rebuild New Orleans (all of it!!). We do our very best to kick our oil addiction. It's very hard for us, but we take it one day at a time. The greatest gains will be made by the youth: Young people will continue to build powerful communities on-line, and create their own form of honest media. The power that we gained by so radically changing the outcome of the 2008 election will inspire us to become even more involved. Candidates will no longer ignore us and youth media will host the most important debates in upcoming elections. We will use our power wisely and the world will be a better place.