the real thing
The real adults in the room are the youth from Parkland, Florida, who are speaking out about the need for meaningful gun control laws. They are proving that civic engagement among young people can make a difference. The ironic part? They can't even vote yet.
Lowering the voting age has the potential to increase turnout significantly. One of the biggest predictors of whether someone will vote is if they voted previously. Yet turning 18 is a tough time to expect young people to start the habit of voting. They are usually leaving home for school or the workforce, and they must navigate the hurdles of registering and requesting an absentee ballot if they are not at home. By contrast, more youth are likely to vote if they start the habit earlier, when they are in the supportive environment of school and home, especially if we also improve civics education. They will then continue that habit later in life.
What does this have to do with Parkland, Florida, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting? In the aftermath, survivors of the tragedy have spoken out loudly against politicians' refusal to pass meaningful gun control reform. They have quite literally kept the issue at the forefront of a nationwide debate, refusing to allow legislators to offer "thoughts and prayers" and nothing more.
My hot take: A few years ago, I understood the voting age and agreed with it. Now, with Donald Trump running (or maybe I should say not running) our country, the country that is #1 in mass shootings and mass incarceration, I feel it is safe to say that desperate time's cause for desperate measures. I often feel like America, "my country", does not see or hear the youth of today- mostly the POC youth but that's for another time. If we were able to vote in 2016, Hillary or quite possibly Bernie would be running us. If we could vote, gun laws would have been taken care before Florida, Vegas, Kentucky, and so on. If we could vote, I genuinely feel this country would be somewhere I felt safe- a home I could be proud of. Get the picture?
We honestly would make healthier reforms for the country, our views aren't retrograded or stubborn like the adults running the government and individuals yelling their degrading opinions. We've just got to be careful and aware that we have our own share of idiots.
ReplyDeleteI've kind of found our generation akin to the lost generation we discussed if the 20's, we're so over-saturated with violence and polarizing political figures that we've become disillusioned with the current state of government and our country. I think though that the mistakes made by the generation in power now, will inform us when it is our time to take over to improve America for everyone inside it and not those who fit a specific mold of what is believed to be "American" Also nativism is back and whack as hell.
ReplyDeletewell actually I guess nativism never really left, but anti immigration laws seem to be all the rage in the current regime.
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