The Patrick
Henry Democratic Club WE MADE YOUR VOTE COUNT. NOW GIVE US
OUR VOTE.
By Natasha H., one of the millions of voiceless 14 year olds.
This year, when you go to your voting booth and find there is a
voter-verifiable paper trail, thank a child for making sure your vote
counts. Not all states will have one. However, in all the
states that do, voters owe much of their gratitude to those who are too
young to vote.
Statistically, in countries where the voting age has been lowered, 16
year olds vote in significantly greater percentages than 18 to 25 year
olds. When individuals start voting at 16, they make it a habit.
Adults want my generation to wait until we are no longer interested in
voting. What if Mozart had been told at the age of five that he
would have to wait to start composing until he had lost his interest in
music? What if Thomas Edison had been told at the age of twelve
to stop working on inventions because it was too dangerous and he would
have
to wait until his brain grew? What if 14-year old John Quincy
Adams, while
packing for his trip to Russia as the diplomatic secretary to the
commissioner to the Court of Catherine the Great, had been told he was
too young, Congress must have been wacko to give him the position and
that he would have to hang out in some school learning to enjoy be
bored? What would have happened to all the teenaged Olympic gold
medallists if someone had told them to wait until college to
compete? Or maybe we should repeal the Civil Rights Act of
1964, which established a sixth grade education as legal proof of
literacy. And what was with those voting-aged adults who put together
Title 42, Chapter 20, Subchapter I, Section 1971 (c) of the U.S. Code,
which establishes a presumption that
anyone who has completed a sixth grade education "possesses sufficient
literacy, comprehension and intelligence to vote in any election."
Back in 2000, when it was clear that the Florida voters had not had
votes counted, children dragged their parents into the streets to
protest the theft of the election. No one credited the kids,
especially not the news media. Yet it was the children who were
often the subject of Rent-a-Thug attacks. Yes, my
generation took the blows for the voters. The police, the news media
and most of those with the power to change things didn't care.
The newsmen, whose cell phones were used to report rent-a-thug attacks,
didn't want anyone to find out children had an opinion on the issue and
pretended we didn't exist. Check out the news footage and then ask
people how many kids were really there. The photographers'
main jobs seemed to be to film around any kids. Even when photographers
got the footage, their bosses would not allow anyone to see
it. The police weren't interested in arresting any of the
Rent-a-Thugs, even though the Rent-a-Thugs repeatedly got violent and
bragged about plans to commit 187s. Instead, the police would politely
ask the Rent-a-Thugs to leave at their convenience.
And when the thugs who were suppressing democracy got a hold of
childrens' email addresses, they sent children pornographic emails,
which the FBI traced back to Texas before deciding that sending
pornographic emails to children was not a crime. But that didn't
slow down my generation. Even our parents could not tell us to
slow down when it came to democracy.
When right-wing tyrants from D.C. traveled to California, children
again dragged their parents to protest and this time they learned about
the free speech zone clause of the First Amendment. By then, the
youth had acquired megaphones and lectured the right-wing tyrants on
what democracy was all about. The boldest of the chants
were all from the youth protestors. The police were
relatively polite except for when they roughed up old people and
"accidentally" hit kids with their batons while aiming at various
people of voting age in the crowds. Those they were aiming
at were just chanting their opinion of certain government
leaders. Unlike adults who are good at quitting on
democracy, members of my generation insisted on continuing the
fight. So, my generation has been out on the front lines since
2000 keeping democracy alive. Where were most of those old enough
to vote during this time? Oh, yeah
! For the most part, they were the ones telling the kids that
they could protest on the streets but they had to keep their mouths
shut at Democratic meetings.
It was my generation that walked out of schools to protest the war and
my generation that walked out of schools and blocked freeways to
protest inhumane immigration legislation. Those who walked out of
school were not illegal immigrants. The protesters were American
kids who know more about right and wrong than the voters who elect
thugs to Congress and the Presidency or who don't care enough to throw
out un-elected officials. My generation is the conscience of
America. How many Senate Democrats, all of whom are of voting
age, showed up at the Senate censure hearing in March of this year?
In 2003, the California Democratic Party adopted a resolution calling
for a paper trail, public ownership and inspections of software and
other voter protections. That resolution was written by an eleven
year old and a thirteen year old. Though some adults argued
against it, my generation won out. The momentum from California
caused the DNC to adopt a similar resolution. When Kevin Shelley
had his HAVA hearings, it was the youth that called for a
voter-verifiable paper-trail or paper ballots and public ownership and
inspection of any software. There were adults there from Common
Cause and the ACLU arguing against a paper trail. As a result of
the testimony before those hearings and the call by the California
Democratic Party for a paper-trail, all California voters will get that
paper-trail this year (2006). When the adults let the Diebold get
rid of Shelley, my generation protested and tried to get him to
stay. If Diebold controls the next election, it will be because
the adults did not listen to my generation. Fortunately, the
groundwork Shelley created, at the urging those of us who don't have
the vote, may be solid enough to keep out Diebold.
The adults in California and elsewhere in the U.S. will be getting
their votes counted this year. So, when do we get ours counted?
Throughout history, oppressors have always let the oppressed do the
work while the oppressors got all the benefits. This was the case
before the Fifteenth Amendment when racists pretended blacks weren't
educated or knowledgeable enough to vote and that they (the racists)
were protecting the blacks by preventing them from voting. This
was also the case before the Nineteenth Amendment when sexist men
claimed that women were too hysterical and stupid to vote. The
men were protecting the women from themselves by preventing them from
voting. That was the men's version. After all, like many
of today's adults, they had the vote and didn't want to share it.
Now, though benefiting from my generations work, many of those of
voting age still are acting as oppressors in denying us that which we
gave them. They pretend they care about children, but this kind
of egotistical, sick oppressor mentality is no different than the
egotistical, sick oppressor mentality that was held less than a century
and a half ago by racist slavers and less than a century ago by abusive
husbands. Now, hundreds of Americans have died without a
first vote for President because they were too young to vote in the
last presidential election before they died. My generation knows
who our friends are because those individuals are working to give us
the vote - just like we worked to get their votes counted and give them
a paper trail. In contrast to one currently proposed
Constitutional Amendment which would lower the voting age for 1/8 of
the 17 year olds and keep the rest dis-enfranchised, the voting age
needs to be lowered uniformly and in accordance with the Equal
Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. If you want to
know if someone cares at all about America's youth, ask that person if
they will back us in getting the vote. If they say "no," they don't.
This year on April 30th in Sacramento, my generation will see whether
the California Democratic Party will sit back with the oppressors who
only care about their own votes or will join those who support the
youth in this country by calling for the lowering of the voting age in
their 2006 platform. Last year, the California Democratic Party
passed a resolution calling for the voting age to be lowered.
However, the party has a history of ignoring its own resolutions.
On April 30th, all of America will learn whether the unanimous vote for
that resolution was a meaningless gesture or a statement of where the
party really stands.
Last month, the adults learned that my generation won't sit in
classrooms where students are programmed to become an under-class for
those attending elitist country club academies. My generation
won't sit and let a group of irresponsible leaders pass laws that turn
this country into a fascist state. We are through with the
classroom mind-control and the futures that have been chosen for us by
those who are destroying our world. We want to determine
the future with which we will have to live. Last month, my
generation changed the immigration debate by blocking
freeways. We were wondering where most of the adults
were. Granted, the freeway is not the most elegant voting
both. However, it's all we've got for now. Give us a real
voting booth and we will elect better leaders than the gang that is
currently running this country.
Either way, we win by staying active. By blocking the freeways,
we force the adults to go somewhere else to spread their pollution and
oppression. By getting the vote, we can end the attacks on our
environment, our planet and the world. As voters, we will
outvote the adults and then the adults can thank us for saving them
from themselves.
