This is fascinating stuff to me. Politics in action. Democratic
process in action. Not the loudmouths on TV but in local
neighborhoods where a change is desired and local people fight
for something they believe in. There has been a movement in
several places in the USA to lower the voting age, at least for
local elections, to 16. It's [1]?#?16tovote? - and several
cities in the USA have done so already. This time, it's a
county. Broward County, Florida USA, right next door to Collier
County, FL, where I live.
Elijah Manley has been working hard in Broward County, going
through the necessary processes to try to make change happen in
Broward County, to lower the voting age there to 16. Why 16?
Many people's knee-jerk response is, "They don't know anything
about politics" along with some generic statements about young
people that aren't very kind. But consider: They're generally
still in school. Once out of school, many people are happy to be
done with ANYTHING institutional for a while, whether school or
government or anything. But there's a chance to start a lifelong
voting citizen by starting while still in the education
system... such as it is. In a lifetime of voting, how many extra
votes is that? One? Two? Out of a potential 60 voting years with
maybe 15 major presidential elections and 30
whatever-they-do-in-the-two-year-votes? That makes one or two
more votes possible for a citizen. Starting at 16, there's a
chance that excitement about the democratic process might
continue. Starting at 18, many people just want to get on with
their lives and build their careers and friendships and romance
lives and many adults just don't want to bother voting at all.
"What's the point? All crooks anyway!" etc. But if someone can
vote while there's still hope for the future, where the
skepticism brought about by years and years of political
scandals have tarnished any interest or desire for change...
perhaps will PREVENT the skepticism and when these 16/17 yr olds
are older they might remember their early positive experience in
the voting process - remember being taken seriously after years
of being "just a kid" for too long without much of a public
voice. But even with all of this: Even if you disagree with the
idea and thinks it's stupid or awful, I think it's great they
they're trying - willing to go through the process of talking to
people, learning to convince people, trying to make change they
believe in. I think it'd be nice to have a less apathetic
population in the USA. For myself? I vote because I believe in
the process. Not that it is a perfect process by any means. But
it's what we've got. If more people want to be involved in the
process, to have a choice to be heard? I'm all for it. Disagree
at will but I for one am very impressed. Two cities have
changed. Perhaps Broward County will be next?
http://youthrights.org/2016/01/03/broward-county-and-the-voting-age/
References
Visible links
1.
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/16tovote?source=feed_text&story_id=804399569878
