The Patrick Henry Democratic Club Featured Article

When will the bigotry end?  When will the bigots stop being proud of their elitism?

by Natasha H. (age 14)

For Centuries, bigots have eagerly allowed those against whom they have discriminated to work long hours for no rewards, take major risks, and endure punishments without any say in their own future.  Unfortunately, much of this bigotry still permeates our governments and our major political parties.

A standard feature of discrimination is that oppressors often convince themselves that they are doing a favor to those oppressed.  After all, if those discriminated against tried to have a say in their own lives, they would only fail and wind up worse off than if the oppression continued forever.  Blacks weren’t considered smart enough to survive without a white master, despite the fact that they had been surviving much better without the whites for centuries before they were kidnapped and placed into slavery.  Heathens couldn’t be saved unless they agreed to join the particular brand of Christianity that was held by those trying to rescue their souls.  Then they were only ok if they continued to do what the right Christians told them to do. What did women need with jobs or the vote?  They only existed to follow the instructions of their husbands.  Children aren’t considered competent enough to have a say in whether the planet will be blown up by the adults before the younger generation reaches adulthood.  They need to be segregated and herded like cattle into prisons (called schools) where the teachers often know less than the students, where advanced students are discouraged from learning, and where kids must give up their independent personalities and willingly submit to brainwashing or to forced drugging.   That’s fair isn’t it?  All of the above discrimination is fair and benevolent if you listen to the racists, religionists, sexists and ageists.  So do these bigots deserve a medal of honor for their kindness or are the oppressed groups worthy of rights and freedom?

Bigotry was brought to the Americas by the first European settlers.  People with the “wrong” religions were a major target of persecution.  The First Amendment contains both the Establishment Clause (preventing  the government from establishing a state religion or putting one religion above another) and the Free Exercise Clause (preventing the government from interfering with religious worship), which has provided some relief to those of minority religions or no religion. 

Stopping racial discrimination took a little more work than just adding the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments.  America also needed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and a host of Supreme Court decisions.     Under the 15^th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, voting rights are shown to be an interest that should be free of discrimination. 

The key point at which most mark then end of the worst discrimination against women was in 1920 when women received the vote through the 19^th Amendment.   No group has ever been considered to be equal in treatment until it has received equal voting rights

When narrow-minded people wish to continue discrimination on a permanent basis, they simply refuse those discriminated against the right to vote.

In the case of one downtrodden group, bigots would have the oppressed believe that prejudice is built into a Constitutional amendment and that discrimination is the final word. Though the 26^th Amendment only sets a maximum age at which discrimination must end and citizens must be given the right to the vote, too many biased individuals mislead by falsely claiming it sets a minimum age and by refusing to accept, as equals, those under the age of 18. 

So are members of the oppressed class simply incapable of thinking or of doing anything useful?  Should they be locked up in cages and placed in straightjackets to prevent them from being a danger to themselves or others?  Do they have any capabilities at all? 

1. Individuals under the age of 18 may, and a great many do, work.  Some work longer hours than adults and only 15% of certain of their earnings is protected from theft by adults.   

2. They may be and a great many are required to pay taxes

3. Until recently, Americans under 18 could be, and many were, sent into combat in the American military.   A great many died.   The United States was extremely reluctant to agree not to send those under 18 to their deaths and, after six years of negotiating, finally agreed to sign an international treaty on the subject in 2000.  The result is that, if the U.S.  Government follows it’s agreement, children under the age of 18 won’t be placed on the front lines.  However, they are eligible to die on the supply lines.

4. They may be, and frequently are, subjected to recruiters tricking them into agreeing to join the military.

5. They may be, and many are, tried as adults, sometimes resulting in life sentences.  Until the Supreme Court said, “No,” they could even be sentenced to death and executed.

6. They can, and generally do, drive motor vehicles.

7. They can, and often do, fly airplanes solo.

8. They can, and regularly do, write computer programs.

9. They can, and frequently do, write books.

10.  A great many attend college and a sizable number are college graduates.

11. They often have an easier time understanding the “Rule Against Perpetuities” than those who have graduated from law school.

12. Under certain circumstances, they may, and many do, marry and may have children.

13. They may be, and a great many are, killed by being subjected to harmful chemicals in foods, in water, in the air and on their school grounds.

14. They may, and many do, work for no pay and no rewards for 50 or more hours a week for political parties.  Some may even work 100 or more hours a week for political parties.  The next time you hear someone placing political literature on your door after midnight, check.  You will likely find that it is a kid.

15.  Kids as young as eleven can be held for years without charges at Camp Gitmo, a place of documented torture.  Would this be a good place to mention the video of the eleven- year-old victim at Abu Ghraib?

16. They are all too often victims of crimes.

17. They are generally more knowledgeable about history, math, economics, science, grammar, government, and the world than most adults.

Brains do not just magically manifest as kids approach 18.  Kids are born eager to learn.  Studies show that learning diminishes as individuals (including kids) age.  So the younger a person is taught about government, the quicker that person will learn and leave their impact on the world.  It is much easier for a ten year old to accept new concepts than for those over the age of eighteen.

At five, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began composing.  This writer won awards for a musical composition written at the age of seven.   This writer’s brother, Alexandar, designed and built two working models of flying cars at the age of seven.   The adult director of his school program could not conceive of any useful need for a flying car.   Joan of Arc started hearing voices when she was thirteen and then went on to lead the French army.  John Quincy Adams was the secretary to the minister to Russia when he was fourteen

Jessica Dubroff was old enough to pilot a plane to her death at the age of seven while attempting to break a cross-country flying record. “The Child Pilot Safety Act” didn’t stop kids from flying.  At 11, this writer piloted a plane containing other children who were not afraid of riding with a child at the controls.

Adults would have kids believe that voting is more complicated than piloting a plane alone, driving a car, writing books, composing operas, designing computer programs, working long hours, filing out a tax form, joining the military, graduating from college or graduate school, committing the most serious felonies, or being a victim of discrimination.  For kids, voting would be a lot safer than a lot of the other activities in which they engage.    Most kids aren’t dumb enough to trust a vote count to a computer.  Many kids could actually design the rigging program that would allow the candidate of their choice to win an election on voting computers too many adults are gullible enough to trust. Even this kid knows how to alter the vote count in a Diebold tabulator, such as the one adults in this writer’s county trusted last November   Perhaps the real basis of the bigotry is that adults want to remain ignorant and voting kids may teach them something about democracy.

Or does the problem stem from the fact that kids make good slave-labor for political parties?  The interest kids have in changing the world causes them to help out their favorite parties for long hours – only to be denied any rights or privileges by the parties who benefit from their hard work.  This writer and another kid (my brother) co-wrote a resolution that inspired the creation of a progressive caucus within the California Democratic Party.   Only one meeting has taken place so far, and, at that meeting, over 400 members of the caucus unanimously voted in by-laws allowing children and immigrants awaiting the right to vote to become members and officers.  The members of the caucus decisively elected this writer to be one of the first officers of the caucus.  They knew this writer’s age and choose this writer over adult members of the caucus who also ran for the position.  However, some of the adult caucus officers, who want to run the caucus from the top down and who are opposed to sharing any power with a kid, don’t want to follow the democratic decision of the caucus.   These officers, who seem to have the term “elected official” confused with the term “dictator,” have tried to subvert the will of the caucus, institute bigotry, kick out a chunk of the membership, and unilaterally alter the unanimously-adopted by-laws, which do not allow these prejudiced officers to take any of these undemocratic actions.  These adult caucus officers also solicited this kid’s cooperation in an action this kid felt was unethical, dishonest and harmful to the California Democratic Party and to the caucus.  This kid refused.  My generation believes in ethics.  Perhaps the adult officers trying to overturn democracy and encourage others to violate their code of ethics should get together with the gang in Florida that stopped the counting of the votes in 2000.  They seem to have a similar mindset.  Maybe, in the next caucus election, if much of the voting membership can successfully fight disenfranchisement, the caucus members will elect more kids to the board so that the members’ decision will have a greater chance of being enforced.

Perhaps it’s time for an adult generation obsessed with power to share a little of this power.  Perhaps it’s time for a too-well heard adult generation to give a voice to a group of Americans who will be more strongly affected than the adults by the policies of our government.  Perhaps, it’s time for the adult generation to stop being elitist and grow up into caring, considerate human beings. 

The better question may be “why are those who are bigoted against children allowed to vote?”   Usually the most bigoted individuals in society are the most ignorant.  Do we really want ignorant people voting?   While there are lots of reasons to give those under the age of eighteen the vote, there are more reasons to wonder whether the majority of those over eighteen have the mental capacity to exercise their vote properly.  The best reasons to doubt the voting capabilities of the adult generation are the elections (or pseudo-elections) of George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Tom Delay, Ben Nelson, James Sensenbrenner, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Frist, and Harry Reid.  My generation would have picked leaders more like Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, Cynthia McKinney, Jim McDermott, Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul.  All major parties have a lot for which to answer when they nominate tyrants who blindly obey Raytheon and ignore their constituents.  My generation can do a lot to clean things up.   But we won’t disenfranchise the adults who have messed up this county.  The adults can be thankful that my generation wants to empower Americans – not dis-empower them as the adult generation has done to us. 

My generation is collecting a heroes list.  When the word electable comes up, we see it as meaning, someone who gave us a chance.  Former California State Senator John Vasconcellos is a hero to my generation for his introduction in 2004 of a bill calling for partial enfranchisement of14 year olds.   It is highly doubtful that those letting that bill die in committee will get the votes of my generation – even after we turn eighteen.  Eventually, we will get the vote, and, when our oppression ends, we plan to reward those who stood by us and believed in us.

Another hero of my generation is Dennis Kucinich, who has worked hard to give my generation and all Americans more rights.  He has worked hard to fight such oppression as wars (in which members of my generation could be killed before casting their first vote), USA-PATRIOT, and the Real ID Act (which is an attack on the rights and liberty of all people, endangers all residents of the United States, eliminates political asylum for those, including children, in danger of being killed by their governments and limits the driving privilege to those possessing significant amounts of government-issued identification).  If my generation had the vote, those who enacted the Real ID Act would have to answer for their votes on this bill before getting our votes.

It’s time for America to become the land of opportunity – not a land where those with all the power abuse their power and use the powerless for cost-free, voiceless labor.  It’s  time for the bigotry to end and for an open-minded and intelligent younger generation to take its rightful place in the voting booths.  Sixteen will do for now.  But this will some day have to be re-visited to see if sixteen is way too old to start giving a say to those to whom the future belongs.

Home

Young Dems