As they see it.

• Position: Cartoon

"It's kind of like a turning point in your life. Now I get the chance to make decisions of who governs the country or help make those decisions. It makes you feel like you're part of something."

--New Tennessee voter Julie Lewis, 18, to the Tennessean about the opportunity to vote last fall.

"[Jury duty] is participatory democracy at its best. Come on down, we have plenty of seats and no waiting. Well, almost no waiting."

--Pam Wood, a jury commissioner in Massachusetts, to the Christian Science Monitor, about the high number of people not responding to a jury summons.

"We have not been able to crack this issue."

--Judith Monroe, Indiana health commissioner, to the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette on rising obesity rates.

"There's increasing understanding that the math situation in the United States is a complete disaster."

--R. James Milgram, a math professor at Stanford University, to the New York Times about math instruction in schools.

"It's outrageous."

--Indiana Representative Charlie Brown, to the Associated Press about how he was stopped when he tried to use his statehouse photo ID...