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During last July’s 5.8 earthquake, 3-year-old Bronwyn told her 1-year-old sister, “We’re going for a wiggle.” READ MORE
Teen Years
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Politics. The word itself brings to a teen’s mind images of old men dressed in fancy suits puttering about in Washington with leather briefcases and slick, salesmen-like voices. Not exactly what the average person my age cares about these days. In fact, while most teens can probably recite all the episodes of “The OC” by heart, less than half of these same teens can name the vice president. Need more proof? According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, only 36.1% of the youngest age group, the 18- to 24-year-olds, tend to vote. Divided up by age, the results move from pretty dismal to, well, you decide: 73% of 18-year-olds and 70% of 19-year-olds tend not to vote. Why, you ask? One of the more popular excuses is, “I don’t know who to vote for.” With the help of the Internet, though, this logic is poor. Each candidate has their own website, georgewbush.com or johnkerry.com, that explains all of their stances on issues such as national defense and education. Even watching the nightly news for 15 minutes is enough to explain the latest developments in the race to the White House. Other excuses include, “I don’t like either of the candidates,” or, “It’s too inconvenient to register,” but neither of those really make sense either. Most voters will tell you it’s impossible to completely agree with all the candidate’s political opinions, so they vote for whom they agree with more. And registering? It’s as easy as going to school. Look for a registration form in your U.S. history or government classes, or ask for one in the front office. What if you’re not yet 18? Does getting involved in politics still matter? Definitely. Big decisions from the federal government tend to trickle down and affect you in a big way, even though we don’t hear about it most of the time. Take the Patriot Act, for example. Did you know that now the FBI can legally access your private medical records, your student records, conduct secret searches, all without probable cause because it’s for “intelligence purposes”? Just because you’re getting educated about politics doesn’t mean you’re going to become a hard-core liberal like Michael Moore or a reactionary conservative like Ann Coulter. It just means that you want to know what’s going on in the world around you and that you want to have a say in the government that makes your everyday life possible, even if you don’t turn 18 for a while. Our teen voting rights are actually privileges. Eighteen-year-olds didn’t get to vote until 1970 when legislators decided that 18-year-olds were capable of voting since they were also capable of giving up their lives for their country. Thus we shouldn’t waste our country’s civil liberties by being apathetic. Now, especially with the war on terrorism and the country emerging from recession, we can’t afford to stand by. In a few days, America will decide who will be president for the next four years. Will the youth of America, all 20 million of us, finally speak up and be heard? Ann Long, 17, of Anaheim is a senior at Troy High School in Fullerton. She is co-editor of the school’s newspaper. |
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