Americans love to feel good about themselves. The exhaustive yearning to connect with our leadership, our ideals, and our capabilities has been a primary driver of American electoral and cultural politics, and is perhaps one of our country’s greatest narratives. In the face of domestic or foreign adversity, Americans thirst to rid themselves of national self-doubt and to unify around national pride, the eternal stimulant of the American people. Such a mentality seems quite apposite since last Tuesday’s election as our generation — Generation Y — now finds itself at the helm of a resurgence of the ultimate restorative device: patriotism.

As incoming provost Kent Fuchs begins his transition to his new post I call upon him to consider a new graduation requirement for seniors: a workshop in personal finance. The changing of the guard at the University’s highest academic office offers a unique opportunity for Cornell to become a leader among its peer institutions by educating its students in not only the writings of philosophers, the theories of physicists, or the greatest works of artists and architects, but also in pertinent subjects such as credit card debt, mortgages, and saving for retirement.

We are less than three weeks away from Elec­tion Day. In the longest presidential campaign in Amer­ican history, 15 primary candidates became two presidential hopefuls: Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. At this point in time, a typical campaign analyst would presume both platforms would have been well articulated, challenged, and disseminated in the presidential debates. But this is not a typical campaign, and that does not seem to be the case. In the midst of bemused moderators and citizens it is important to ask, what have we learned from Obama and McCain in the debates?

While healthy young adults may appear to be the least at risk for health problems, make no mistake — many young adults are uninsured. The current system of health insurance in the United States has placed college students in an incredible bind. Over 13.7 million young adults in the U.S. today do not have health insurance specifically, those between the ages of 19 and 29, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare think tank. With young adults comprise one of the largest segments of America’s uninsured, we can be certain this is a serious domestic issue.

The past few weeks of Wall Street meltdown have profoundly reshaped the economy. Let’s start from the top. Last week the Treasury Department bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the country’s integral mortgage finance companies that dated back to World War II.