In the first episode of HBO's new drama, The Newsroom, after a personal and professional crisis leads him to restructure and reformat his cable news program, the lead character proclaims to his staff, "Everything Matters!"  The truth of that statement is never more clear than in the months leading to a presidential election.  During the fall semester, 2012, students in a first-year composition course at the University of North Alabama will be talking in this blog about things that matter to them and to their generation - indeed, to their futures as Americans and world citizens.