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CounterPunch
February
7, 2003
Enfranchising America's Youth
It's Time to
Lower the Voting Age
by ALEX KOROKNAY-PALICZ
The movement to lower the voting age has begun.
On January 28th, an ordinance was introduced to the Anchorage,
Alaska city council that will lower the voting age to 16 for
city elections. After a short but busy period collecting signatures
to put the measure on the ballot the local group led by high
schooler Corey Rennell has asked the city council to enfranchise
them as local voters. If the council decides to pass the ordinance
it will become just the second government body to lower the voting
age since the 1970s. Last year the city council in Cambridge,
Massachusetts passed an ordinance lowering the voting age to
17 for local elections. Local youth groups in North Dakota and
Washington, DC are busy working on the issue in their areas as
well.
The success of any or all of these campaigns may spawn similar
campaigns in cities and states all across the nation. It is
coming. Youth are demanding a voice, they are demanding the
vote. Allow me to explain why. The last decade was the worst
decade for youth in our collective national memory. Despite
a great increase in wealth, the public lashed out at our teenage
minority in what has grown to be a national hysteria. Curfew
laws restricted movement, dress codes silenced individuality,
zero-tolerance polices made crimes out of trench coats and saying
"bang", and boot camps emerged as prisons to send anyone
who resisted. Against all evidence to the contrary, the public
readily accepted Columbine shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris
as standard bearers for an entire generation. Despite a plummeting
rate of youth crime and a skyrocketing rate of youth volunteerism,
the 90's saw an anti-teen witchhunt that is persisting even now
into the next decade. Tired of no respect, many youth are determined
not to let the last decade repeat itself.
As our society is a republic, power stems from voting. Politicians
listen to those who vote, they respect those who vote. Why is
it that in the last decade state governments have begun to take
away driving privileges from youth and not from the equally dangerous
elderly population? Because seniors vote, youth don't. Why
is it that politicians fight to provide the best medical benefits
and handouts to seniors while stealing funds from education?
Because seniors vote, students don't. Granting youth the right
to vote will confer upon them the respect from lawmakers that
they deserve.
The chief concern among skeptics is that young people are not
mature or intelligent enough to vote properly. While this is
a legitimate concern, I wonder why these same concerns have not
been raised among adult voters. There are no tests, no qualifications,
no restrictions to prevent certain adults from voting incorrectly.
In the 2000 election, elderly Florida Democrats accidentally
voted for right-winger Pat Buchanan rather than Vice President
Al Gore. Yet, no one called for disenfranchising older voters,
and rightly so. What, I wonder, would be so wrong with affording
this same respect to young voters under 18?
I have the utmost confidence that the average 16 year old has
as much sense and intellect to cast as valid and informed a ballot
as the average 40 year old. We just have to give them the chance,
and I urge you to do so. When a petitioner knocks on your door
in North Dakota to put language on the ballot to lower the voting
age to 16, please sign it. When your Washington, DC city council
is asked to consider lowering the voting age, please support
it. And when the Youth Rights movement reaches your town, wherever
you may be, please support the struggle they have begun.
Alex Koroknay-Palicz is President & Executive Director of the
National Youth Rights Association.
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February
1 / 2, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Railroading
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