Every now and then, an opportunity presents itself to  concerned and active citizens to reach out to our elected officials in a meaningful way. But these chances don't come along every day. When they do, it's important that we take advantage of them.

       Just this past Monday, Jan. 30, students at UW-La Crosse had the privilege of participating in a conference call with the First Lady Michelle Obama. The call was set up by Organizing For America, The Wisconsin Student Voters, and the UW-La Crosse College Democrats. It had participants from schools across the state. Overall, an event like this would be more than enough to get anyone excited. Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite a let down.

Mrs. Obama is certainly a good  speaker, and while her remarks were the usual political speak clearly aimed at the college campus audience,  she came across in a natural and conversational way. At any rate, it is an election year, it would be unrealistic to expect anything else.

 Indeed, my problem rests with my fellow students. After the First Lady spoke, she answered a few questions. This is where things began to be difficult to stomach. The first question was, "What are some things we can do right now to re-elect the President?", which came from a student at UW-Madison no less. Supposedly this is the flagship school in the system. This is the best we can do? The other questions were not much better. "What would you want people to know about the President that we don't hear on the news?" came a question from UW-Milwaukee. A question was even fielded from right here at UW-La Crosse. "How should I respond to friends who ask what the President has done for students?"

We are the future of the United States. This is what the educators  have all been telling us since we have been in kindergarten. We had the First Lady of the United States of America on the line, and that's all we asked? Now I realize that this was an event put on by people who already support the President and it was largely just a campaign event.  I did not expect any hardball questions. But could we not have at least asked something interesting? These questions were just an insult to anyone who actually showed up  in hopes of learning more about someone that they might want to vote for. In many cases this maybe even their first time voting. If we really are going to be concerned and informed citizens, we should really do a better job helping our fellow Americans (especially our fellow students) get the facts, not the cheerleader routine.