To Be Young and Part of History

Ten-thirty in the morning on election day, and 19-year-old Chapman University sophomore John Kingsley is working on a cheeseburger and fries in the student union. A bit early for a burger? Give me a break, he says, I didn’t have breakfast.

Kids. What are you gonna do with them?

I’m looking for a young person voting for the first time -- and in a superheated presidential election, no less. Kingsley invites me to sit down. We oldsters have heard a lot about Young America voting in record numbers, so why not go to the source?

“I have been looking forward to this election for the last couple of years,” Kingsley says. “Just because it’s my first time voting and it’s such a big thing. I’ll be doing it the rest of my life. I just want to get involved in the political process, because I want to be able to help decide where my country goes from here.”

So you’re feeling good today, huh?

“Yeah,” he says. “It’s a big day in the life of our nation. It’s a big election. I think whichever way it turns out , our nation’s going to move forward and going to be better.”

Young Kingsley cast his ’04 presidential vote a couple of weeks ago by absentee ballot, a sequel to his first visit to a voting booth -- back home in July -- in the Georgia primary.

While lamenting that voting absentee isn’t as fun as being there, Kingsley says, “It was my first time voting in a presidential election, and you see the names on the ballots and you’ve seen the faces on TV and you feel connected. You think somehow your vote actually is going to matter to George Bush or John Kerry. They’ve actually courted you for a little while.”

Majoring in film production, Kingsley hails from Barnesville, Ga., a town of about 6,000. His father, Kent, is a real estate agent who once lost a statehouse race by 54 votes, his son says, reinforcing the belief that every vote counts.

I tell him that, more so in recent years than when I was his age, I’ve felt the buzz from voting in a presidential election. He nods, adding, “It’s fun in that you’re connected with something much larger than yourself. You’re participating in something that one person can’t do. Your vote counts. You’re voting along with millions of other Americans.”

His father drilled civic duty into Kingsley and his sister. The message, Kingsley says, was that you’re a citizen in a great democracy and voting is your duty.

“When I went to vote for the primary, Dad said, ‘I want us to vote together,’ ” Kingsley says. “He took time off from work so he and I could vote together.”

Now, it’s the real thing, something not lost on him. “It is a major election,” Kingsley says. “It’s the first one since 9/11. We’re in the middle of a war. There’s the war on terrorism. Our economy is sagging, although some would say it’s rising. There are a lot of big issues being debated in this election.”

He thinks America’s youth are getting more politically attuned. “This election, in particular, is exciting. You’re either really for Bush or really against him. Especially with young people. There’s a lot of popular music out there against Bush. There’s a lot of this counterculture movement against Bush. There are people who just don’t care either way, but I think that’s becoming less and less.”

As his next class nears, I pop the question but make it optional. “I voted for Bush,” he says. “I’m a Republican, but I’m a very moderate Republican, compared to others.”

But, oh, this lad is wise beyond his years.

“I am strongly partisan, but I don’t doubt either candidate’s love of America,” he says. “Neither one is going to destroy America. Just because one or the other might win is not going to spell doom for the Free World.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana

.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.