In a recent post, Stefan Muller pointed out that many young people do not support youth rights. Stefan contends that young people often hold ageist views in order to distinguish themselves – in order to seem more mature. Unfortunately, Mr. Muller is correct in his assessment. When I speak to other young people, I am often frustrated by their disregard for their own rights, and their contempt for slightly younger people.
I think one of the reasons behind this attitude lies in the fact that youth is an impermanent condition. A woman supports women’s rights because she knows she will be a woman forever. A black man supports civil rights because he knows he will be black forever. A gay man supports gay marriage because he knows he will be gay forever. But the young man only needs to wait a few years, and he will be free.
When I turn eighteen this coming May, many of the ageist policies I am fighting against will no longer apply to me. Yet I know that for every young person who passes over that arbitrary line in to freedom and equality, another new born is sentenced to eighteen years of protectionist repression. So in a sense, youth rights activists must posses the deepest unselfishness, because they are fighting not for their own personal freedom, but for the freedom of the unborn masses. When I speak to my friends about youth rights, the question I am asked more frequently than any other is “will you still care about this when you turn eighteen?” We must all answer this question with an unflinching and resounding “yes.”
When young people realize that the movement exists not only for their own selfish benefit, but to eradicate an evil that has existed since the beginning of civilization, perhaps they will be more open minded. When more young people begin to realize that youth is not a permanent condition, but that young people are a permanent fixture in any society, perhaps they will be more inclined to support our cause.
The fleeting nature of youth also makes it hard to employ radical rhetoric. Malcolm X could hate white people because he knew he would be never white. But how can I hate older people when I will soon be older myself? How can I hate older people when so many of them have lent their support to the movement? These circumstances dictate that there can never be a youth nationalist movement or a youth supremacist movement.
While the impermanent nature of youth makes it impossible for the youth rights movement to create the kind of class consciousness that accompanies so many other civil rights movements, young people do indeed have a lot to be proud of. Josiah, one of Judah’s most righteous kings, ascended to the throne when he was only eight years old. It was a young man who shed the first blood for the cause of American independence. When Dr. King and Reverend Abernathy lead the Nonviolent Army in Birmingham, young people were their foot soldiers. Young people stood before the dogs and the fire hoses, and it was four young women who died in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Today many of the young men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan never had a chance to vote for the leaders who sent them there – and many of them are still subject to ageist status offenses when they come home.
I say that when a young person denounces his own inalienable rights in an attempt to convey maturity, we ought to remind him of all the things young people have done to defend the rights of others. When a young person tells you that he is willing to wait, remind him that his willingness sentences countless future generations to the same reality that he is just beginning to escape.
SSDP’s Dare Generation Diary has alerted me to a new AP news story on the Goose Creek Raid at Stratford High School in South Carolina back in 2003. Apparently the students involved could receive around $9,000 each in a settlement with the police department and the school district.
From Tom Angell at SSDP:
As you may remember, the raid stirred lots of controversy after the school’s security videotapes were released, showing police officers pointing loaded guns at terrified students. No drugs or weapons were found in the raid, and most of the students involved were black (despite the fact that the majority of students at Stratford are white).
Many of us were left wondering if the Goose Creek Police Department had actually found the only drug-free school in America.
But seriously, how do you determine the amount of money these students should be awarded to compensate for the terror they suffered as a result of official incompetence? Ultimately, the value of the impending court victory will be measured not in dollars, but in terms of the message it sends to drug warriors all around the country:
Lawyers for the students feel their work has assured a similar drug sweep does not occur in the future.
Good news. :b: Though the total amount of damages is only one million. I think for this terrible raid, there should be punitive damages for much more. The school and police department should feel a much bigger hit for the crap they put those students through. Its not a done deal yet, so hopefully the lawyers can press for more. The school/police shouldn’t be let off easy and get a lawsuit shield out of this. Roast the bastards.
Also, for those who remember the original story of the raid (or for those who don’t and want more info), there is an archive of SSDP’s Dan Goldman’s field reports from Goose Creek archived on the Youth Rights Network. Check it out.
We talk all the time about recruiting, but we rarely discuss how to go about doing that. Here’s something I’ve noticed that might make a difference: I’ve found just from talking to friends that 90% of people have never even thought about lowering the voting age (I use voting age simply because I believe it’s the most important cause.) Once you tell them, a great number of teens actually think that the voting age should stay where it is. My speculation on this is that some teens think that saying teens are immature makes them seem more mature and knowledgeable. I’ve seen this numerous times in my school newspaper where reporters used ageist sentiments to make their articles seem more “adult” or whatever.
My point is that no group in history has ever been given more civil rights or will ever be given civil rights until they want them. The Youth Rights movement is no exception. Unless a vast majority of teens desperately want the right to vote (or drive, or get student rights, etc.), nothing will ever happen.
How do we solve this? If you’re in school, talk to friends, acquaintances, strangers, enemies, everybody. Let them know how you feel, let them know your reasons, and until proven otherwise, assume you’re trying to win over an opponent rather than to convince somebody who already agrees with you to join NYRA. Put up posters. Write an article for your school newspaper (I’m gonna do that for the next issue after break.) Start a club. If you can get it as far as they did in Berkely and have a debate, that’s terrific. Let’s make sure all youth know that they deserve rights and that it isn’t childlike or immature to think that way. Then we get them to start fighting, they join NYRA, we get more money to bring our message further, and the cycle has begun and NYRA will expand into a strong organization.
On Saturday, Dec. 10, I had the opportunity to attend an event held by my US Rep. Charles Taylor (R-Brevard, N.C.).
As part of a Student Council activity with my school, I was invited to help at Taylor’s annual dinner party. At the dinner party, I introduced myself to Taylor and Sen. George Allen (V.A.). Allen is the former governor of Virginia, and it is rumored that he is a prospective presidential candidate for the 2008 election.
At the party, many local dignitaries and politicians attended. Although I did not have the chance to discuss youth rights with any politician, I was able to network.
At my dinner table, there were two meterologists working for a federal climatic data center in Asheville, N.C. I was able to have an interesting and intelligent conversation with both of them about youth rights. They were polite and seemed sincerely interested in what I had to say, whether they truly were or not.
As politicians and other officials begin to hold these types of dinners to fundraise for the coming election year, I urge everyone to attend these events. Attending these events will allow you to network with “important” people. When you talk with them, if you get the chance, be sure to bring up youth rights.
Before you attend, I recommend that you read up on the talking points on the main website. You might also want to dress professionally and have business cards on hand.
A good parent will lock up detergents, medicines, and other toxics, so their tiny, toddler children cannot reach them. If not, the child might eat said item and be fatally poisoned. Seems reasonable enough, but there’s more.
When the child grows older, she might be trusted to carry around her own money and buy things alone from stores. The money could be either allowance or obtained some other way. Doesn’t matter. At this point, said child knows the aforementioned locked up items are dangerous and potentially deadly if misused. She knows the glass cleaner is for cleaning windows and mirrors. She knows the NyQuil is for cold symptoms. I should hope so! She’s twelve years old.
A good parent, however, may need assistance in keeping poisons away from their young daughter. A good parent knows that it is possible the girl just might be throwing caution to the wind and using cold medicines and other over the counter items for unintended uses. What with all these news stories about kids getting high off dextromethorphan or taking someone else’s prescription of Vicodin, parents just cannot be too careful.
It is for this reason that household medicines must remain under lock and key. It is for this reason it should be illegal for anyone under 18 to purchase any medicines, even ibuprofen. It is for this reason any student found with any medication on their person, even ibuprofen, must be suspended or expelled for possessing drugs. Why? It is very likely the students are selling these medicines to their classmates to get high. A responsible school just cannot let that happen.
You still with me? Well, there’s even more!
People under 18 cannot be trusted with drugs or toxics of any kind. It is also well known not to sell them eggs or toilet paper, because, most likely, they will use those items to vandalize cars and houses. Same with spray paint. Don’t sell them glue or markers either, because they can get high off those as well. They shouldn’t even be permitted to buy laser pointers, because we all know the first and only thing they’ll do with them is shine them in each other’s eyes. (more…)
(cross posted from own blog, Change and Exchange)
I had the opportunity to see this post on youth culture on the National Youth Rights Association’s forums:
Firstly, let me make clear that I am a 17 year old Greek Cypriot, I live in London and I am not an ‘old man’, but I believe youth culture is disgusting and yet another angle of Anti-Intellectualism, encouraging children to make idols of Musical Stars, drug abusers, single mothers and other dregs of society. This MUST be dealt with sooner or later, why cant youths have people like Cicero as their role models?
Youth culture is basically a sort of mash of these key points, resulting in one of the greatest disasters in History, and the gradual erosion of High Culture:
- Tendency to listen to Modern Music and despise the greats of Music like Wagner, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart and Strauss.
- Teenage Pregnancy.
- Explosion in crime, especially street crime such as pickpocketting. Liberals accuse those who cite Crime statistics showing this as ‘Ageist’, and ‘Against Popular Culture’.
- The gradual explosion of ‘pop culture’ leading to incredibly disgusting activities in Society.
- Lack of Classical Education in Greek Philosophy, The Roman Empire, The Renaissance, The Age of Reason e.t.c.
- Tendency to go to nightclubs and start fights.
- Have a larger Marginal Propensity to commit violence against others because of Alcohol of Marijuana fueled highs. Though it must be noted expensive alcohol such as a good Malt Whisky is a good thing, we are talking about cheap alcohol here.
- Use of inexpensive drugs.
- Lack of monetary assets, resulting in anger at ‘The System’.
- Campaigning for things such as the Legalisation of Rape and Paedophilia, and the introduction of free social housing for any youths that decide to have children at the age of 12.
- Inter-class breeding. Resulting in a problem for the gene pool.
Youth culture is a stain on Society, what would Aristotle, or Octavian, or Charlemagne, or Hitler say if he saw our society today?
Although I can understand this young man’s frustration at the vapidity of a lot of youth culture, I do not understand his desire to malign youth at large and blame popular culture for the decline of high culture. There is no real relation between age and interest in popular culture over high culture. Rather, the interest in high and popular culture has more to do with an individual’s interests and intelligence rather than said person’s age. There are older people who grew up in ‘better times’ who are quite content with watching shows like ‘Jenny Jones’ and keeping track of all the latest stars’ misdeeds. There is no need to mischaracterise all youth as being vapid because some of us want to enjoy popular culture.
Popular culture isn’t causing high culture to erode as the two forms of culture tend to exist in separate continua unless someone wants to bring the two together and manage to connect both the high-brow and the low-brow. Even in the writer’s romanticised Graeco-Roman era, there was still a distinction between high and popular culture and people enjoyed things that were in their social milieux. The artists (either verbal, music or pictorial) that seem to have the most timeless characteristics in either high or mass culture are not the ones who disdain popular culture, but the ones who attempt to transcend class boundaries and have their work be comprehensible to everyone, whether they be the hoi polloi or the intelligentsia.
There are some elements of his statement that are disturbing as well as just being flat-out wrong. He had said that interbreeding in classes was wrong because it corrupted the gene-pool. However, that is incorrect. He seemed to assume in another post that the upper classes were naturally more intelligent. That’s also wrong; there seems to be a normal distribution in intelligence no matter what social class you are in. In addition, lower intelligence scores amongst the poor can be attributed to malnutrition (which stunts cognitive development), a higher occurrence of fetal-alcohol syndrome and other health and environmental problems rather than an inherent lack of intelligence amongst the poor.
His statistics are also wrong. Teenage pregnancy is on the decline. There has been no youth movement to legalise rape and paedophilia. And what is the difference between cheap alcohol and drugs and expensive drugs and alcohol? This young man is apparently wealthy, so I imagine that these ’statistics’ are more snobbery than actual fact.
(And just for kicks, I wrote this post whilst listening to Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’.)
Sometimes it’s difficult to remain optimistic about the future of youth rights, especially when lawmakers continue to pass laws to ‘protect the children’ and seem to set our goals back every day. I admit, I have problems staying optimistic about youth rights when I see new curfews being announced, or when parents’ groups try to ban a video game or an album because it will ‘corrupt our children’, or when politicians assert time after time that youth are not competent or intelligent enough to cast a vote for their desired politicians. However, history has continuously moved in the direction of progress and open-mindedness, and in the past three centuries, the tide of civil rights seems to be turning much more quickly.
Less than a century ago, women were granted the right to vote, the Civil Rights Acts were passed, the voting age was lowered to 18 and such racist organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia saw their powers sublimate. Nowadays we are seeing great leaps forward for queer rights and the rights of other oppressed groups in the United States. If progress is moving so quickly, why are we so despondent about youth rights? Before the dawn of the civil rights era in the twentieth century, it took hundreds of years for anyone besides older white males holding property to have power and rights.
Nowadays we see new civil rights advances happening year by year, even month by month. The question isn’t whether we will have youth rights; it is when we will achieve our goal of legal parity between the young and old. To achieve our goal, we must set our personal differences aside and co-operate to work towards the common goal of youth rights. We must remember that it is not about personal fame or recognition, or about getting one’s own back on elders who have slighted us before, but it is about the recognition as young people as human beings with equal value and dignity.
The problem is, so many of us get caught up in our own petty little disputes and get bogged down in abstruse arguments instead of working together. Sometimes all the little conflicts and disagreements distract us from our ultimate goal, so we allow ourselves to be taken up into a rapidly spinning centrifuge of confusion when we could be directing our feelings and arguments towards the more worthwile cause. We must not lose courage in ourselves, or lose sight of our goal when we work for the rights of the young. And through all the struggle, we must remind ourselves that history is continuously on the side of progress and justice, rather than cultural regressivism and social inequality. We must remain wise and cautious and proceed with the knowledge that we are working towards a freer and fairer world.
In 1842, Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech to the Springfield Washington Temperance Society. Lincoln shared the Society’s desire to quell alcoholism, but he was upset by the mean spirited way they went about pursuing their goals. Those who had gathered to hear him speak were dismayed by Lincoln’s speech, which promoted the use of reasoned argument and gentle persuasion in dealing with habitual drinkers. In the opening minutes of his speech, Lincoln said “If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one.”
I think this is a lesson that we in the youth rights movement must take to heart. Our cause is truly just. Young people are oppressed in this country, and we must strive toward liberty in defiance of this oppression. But at the same time we must ask ourselves; what is the root cause of our troubles? I say there are three major forces working against the freedom of young Americans. These forces are misguided benevolence, ignorance, and mean spirited bigotry.
Those individuals who act out of ignorance or misguided benevolence ought to be dealt with in the way Lincoln described. While groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving do many things I am not fond of, I do not think that these organizations are run by evil people. Wendy Hamilton is regarded as a kind of anti-christ in youth rights circles, and I do not think that is fair. I hate the drinking age. I hate zero tolerance policies for young drivers. But I can not bring myself to hate people who have oppressed me as a byproduct of their desire to ensure public safety. We should hate the sin, but we should not judge the sinner.
Instead, we should work to educate them. We should continue our efforts to inform the public that the Minimum Legal Drinking Age has not saved lives, and that if anything, it has lead to more fatalities. We should continue to highlight the fact that it is an injustice for any man to be denied the right to consume a beverage, especially a man who has served in the military. (more…)
Today! Yes, you heard me right, today, there will be a voting age debate between NYRA Berkeley and JSA (Junior Statesmen of America). NYRA-Berkeley President Zach Hobesh (me!) and National VP Pamela Tatz will be debating for NYRA Berkeley.
Lots and lots of media will attend, along with Berkeley Council members and Berkeley Education Board members. The event is shaping up to be a major event in NYRA Berkeley’s history, rivaling the protest they held on Super Tuesday of the Democratic Primary.
We’re looking to spear head this campaign and get something accomplished and show the rest of NYRA that it can be done! Letters, token of appreciation, checks made out to Zach Hobesh and gifts are all greatly appreciated.
But at times, they also see boomers as a bunch of hypocrites who were challenged to “ask what you can do for your country” and ended up focusing on what was in it for them.
“There’s a disconnect between the younger generation and anyone over 45 or so,” says Steve Rubens, a 29-year-old businessman from Palo Alto, Calif. “Something happened; I don’t know when.
“But they don’t really listen as much as they think they do. They just go with their agenda.”
It’s an agenda that leaves him and other young adults - members of generations known as X and Y - wondering what will be left for them, especially as the cost of living rises, national debt increases, and as the huge population of aging boomers begins to devour Social Security and company pensions.
And:
Young adults also are ready to wrestle away their piece of the pie from boomer politicians, from “helicopter parents” who hover over their adult kids, and even from aging rockers who have yet to give up the stage.
The question is: will boomers let them - and recognize they can’t rule forever?
Age of Reason is a group blog for the National Youth Rights Association, maintained by our members to help educate and inform the public about youth rights.
Adult paternalism seeks to protect and if in this process it curtails freedom, truncates potential and destroys civil liberties this is taken to be incidental. - Bob Franklin
Why don't you 
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