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VOX editorial columnist Barry Langer has handpicked five recent news items that should matter to teens, and explains why:

• Donkeys kicked Elephant butt: The Nov. 7 national elections put the Democratic Party back in control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Why should teens care about this? It’s a complete shift in the politics of one of the three branches of our national government. It forced George W. and the powers that be to re-examine America’s involvement in Iraq, puts a leash on lobbyists pushing big business interests and, importantly to students, could lower the interest rates on our college loans. Locally, Hank Johnson got elected to represent Atlantans in Washington after beating former Representative and disaster-waiting-to-happen Cynthia McKinney in a primary runoff. Johnson won the runoff with 59 percent of the local vote. It would have been 59.0001 percent if I would have been old enough to vote.

• Michael Richards put the N-word back into the national lexicon: Best known as the character Cosmo Kramer on TV’s “Seinfeld,” Richards went on a racial-slur-laden rant against two black men he felt were heckling his stand-up comedy routine. He apologized on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and claimed he tried to get the so-called hecklers to stop by being shocking and brazen. Using the N-word was unforgivable, but it’s totally understandable why Richards had a meltdown — wouldn’t you after realizing you were all washed up?

• Really killer gaming systems hit the market: If you didn’t get a PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii this holiday season, join the majority of us who just weren’t willing to camp out overnight for them. Or hold someone at gunpoint in the parking lot afterwards. Though these two systems are a year behind the Microsoft Xbox 360 in launching the next gen of gaming, they both had good reason to create such a stir among video junkies. The Wii (pronounced wee!) has a wireless controller that senses motion, literally mimicking your motions in real life to the game. So if you swing the controller like a baseball bat, you swing the bat in the game. Reports have some people getting so into it, they’re waking up sore in the morning. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 3 is in such high demand because its graphics are top-notch and it features a Blu-Ray HD DVD player for less than the price of a Blu-Ray HD DVD player alone ($600 compared to $1,000). It doesn’t make sense to me either, but I totally want both systems. For free, of course.

• Hilary Clinton has real competition for 2008: Barack Obama, the young senator from Illinois, is looking like he’ll be running for president in the next national elections. Not only is he African American, but he’s also young (45 years old), realistically idealistic, the author of two best-selling books and an electrifying speaker (remember his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention?). Despite some neocons’ attempts to link him to Islam — his grandfather practiced the faith and his middle name is Hussein — Barack is gaining momentum as a serious candidate to assume the top elected post in the U.S. I think it’s in our best interest if we can get a showdown between him and Republican firebrand John McCain in 2008 to get rid of the political divisiveness that has plagued this nation for nearly as long as we teens have been alive

• Pro athletes behave badly: Falcons’ quarterback Michael Vick was fined $10,000 for flipping the bird at fans at the Georgia Dome, after the Falcons lost to New Orleans, 31-13. A couple weeks later, Dallas Cowboys WR Terrell Owens was fined $35,000 for spitting in the face of Falcons’ CB DeAngelo Hall. And then there was the big NBA brawl where everyone on court was ejected, and suspensions totaling 47 days were handed out. I’m not even sure how much money these guys will be fined for this one. I just know that their fines would have bought a lot of Nintendo Wiis and PlayStation 3s. Sigh.

Barry Langer / VOX Staff