NYRA President Jeffrey Nadel often says “The worst thing you can do is forget what it is like to be young.” Very true. After all, how can you effectively defend youth rights, or do much of anything involving youth for that matter, without any kind of memory or knowledge of the lives of the people involved? As such, our young supporters swear to never forget. Our adult supporters swear to have never forgotten. We can’t ever let go of those memories and experiences…
Yes, you will.
Sorry to break it to you, but yes, you will forget or have already forgotten. Don’t get me wrong. That doesn’t mean you won’t still passionately support youth rights. The common ageist assertion that you’ll “grow out” of caring about this cause has almost entirely proven to be a myth, as even if those who were heavily involved as teens are doing other things with their lives now, they still very much support the mission and make contributions.
But if we adult youth rights supporters are to more truly understand our role in this movement, this is a fact we’re going to have to face. If we are to truly be sure we aren’t perpetuating beliefs and mindsets that work against youth rights, this is a fact we’re going to have to face.
Being an adult youth rights supporter does not mean we don’t still have adult privilege. We do. And the number one symptom of privilege is being blind to it, and blindness to privilege perpetuates it. So what sets adult youth rights supporters apart from ageists is not in having a perfect 20/20 memory of our own youths, but in recognizing we do not have this perfect memory, we are not living the lives of young people anymore, and as such do not have the authority to say or act like we do. What sets us apart is that we are aware we are privileged, and just because we’re seeking to take down that privilege doesn’t mean we’re exempt from it. (more…)
And now we’ve completed the 7th run of #16tovote on the 16th! Our monthly 24-hour Twitter campaign to raise awareness of lowering the voting age! This one was a little low-key, where despite having a decent total tweets and retweets of about 208, number of participants was only 30. Nonetheless, the event still went on and still spread the word about lowering the voting age to a lot of people, even several people who’d never heard of the cause before and were delighted! The next one will, of course, be Thursday, September 16. But for now, here’s the recap!
youthrights Let’s get another #16tovote on the 16th started! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age! http://bit.ly/cavxOT
youthrights Schwarzenegger wants to ban violent video games from youth. http://bit.ly/baOTE3 That is, from people who can’t vote against him. #16tovote
youthrights But funnily enough, Schwarzenegger’s home country of Austria lowered the voting age to 16 three years ago. #16tovote
youthrights Wondering what’s going on? #16tovote on the 16th is our monthly event to tweet a lot about why the voting age needs to be lowered. #16tovote
youthrights If you support lowering the voting age, and of course you do, speak up! And use the hashtag. #16tovote (more…)
The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010
Here I stand
There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years.” The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast – How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?” Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”
This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.
Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contend that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I’m scared. (more…)
Arnold is trying to take away your games. Don’t let him.
California passed a law that would ban the sale of all “violent” video games to individuals under 18. The case of whether or not this law is Constitutional is going before the US Supreme Court. Their ruling could have far reaching implications for how games are produced, who gets to play them and how they look. Even if you aren’t under 18 this court case could be just the first step to larger and stricter standards that will affect everyone. Jeff Green lays out why you should care. The Entertainment Consumers Association calls this case the “single most important moment for gamers, and the pivotal issue for gaming, in the sector’s history.”
Schwarzenegger: keeping violent video games out of the hands of our children since 1992.
No one on the Supreme Court has ever played a video game. None of the lawyers for either side have ever played a video game. These people are going to be setting down law that will affect tens of millions of gamers and young people across the country, but their only knowledge of video games comes from the testimonies of people like Andrew Schlafly, who paint video games as little more than realistic murder simulators.
NYRA isn’t going to let them get away with this. NYRA defends the rights of youth when they are challenged across the country. As gamers, we need to make it clear that video games are more than random violence and that no one should be denied access to them. NYRA is working on an Amicus Brief to submit to the Supreme Court, but we need your help.
Since we are one of the few organizations working on this actually made up of gamers, we need to work with the gaming community to strengthen our argument. The Supreme Court doesn’t realize the importance of video games. We need your testimonies about their social, artistic, and political value to help the justices understand just what they would be taking away if they let this law stand.
Political speech is treated differently than non-political speech. The more examples we can provide of games, especially violent ones, having some kind of political content the better. If we collect enough testimony to convince the court that video games have political value, their distribution will be protected under the First Amendment. This very well could be the silver bullet that saves video games in this case. If we convince the Court that games are political, not mindless, then we win. Simple as that.
You can be a part of saving video games. Leave a comment on this post describing your thoughts on the social, artistic and, especially, political value of video games. Together, we can strike this law down.
Great to see more progress over in Europe on lowering the voting age!
The Finnish Justice Minister, Tuija Brax (Greens) recently proposed lowering the minimum voting age in Finland to 16 for future municipal elections. Brax believes that municipal elections are the perfect learning grounds for younger voters.
The aim of lowering the voting age is simply to improve voter turnout. According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the voter turnout among young people aged 18-29 in Western Europe is systematically lower than the average turnout – and Finland is no exception. Turnout among young people is the lowest of any age group in Finland, and the government wishes to reverse this trend.
Any changes to the voting age must be ratified by two consecutive parliaments, according to the constitution, meaning that any change is not possible before the 2012 municipal elections. The financial cost of any change has been estimated to be between 80,000 and 750,000 euros, depending on the costs of campaigns aimed at improving young voter turnout. No decision will be made on the national or local level until studies currently underway have been concluded sometime in the spring of 2011. However, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has already lowered the voting age in this year’s parish elections to 16.
Ugh, yet another mall banning teens. Where do they expect teens to go? This is ageist segregation, nothing more.
It was once a rite of passage for many teens, hanging out at the mall, but that may soon become a thing of the past.Tri-County Mall is the latest to restrict teens’ access during certain hours.
Starting Aug. 6, teens younger than 18 will have to be escorted by someone over the age of 21 after 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.The idea wasn’t sitting well with teenagers and some parents who are just learning of the new rules.”That’s not gonna be fair,” said 17-year-old Elise Hargis. “I’m not gonna have time to go to the mall. My mom can’t always go and that’s the only time I have to go. Saturdays I work during the day. Sunday I work.
“”That’s not right,” said shopper Barbara Phillips. “How can you stop somebody from going to stores spending money regardless of what age they are?”But mall officials said they believe congregating teens can make some shoppers uncomfortable.”You’re not as comfortable with youth right there at the main entrance, standing side by side, hanging out, not doing anything serious, just being loud and being youth,” said Mike Lyons, general manager of Tri-County Mall.And some shoppers agree.
“I mean, I teach high school, so I know there are really good teenagers out there,” said Richele Nold. “I know there are other kids who get in a group and just misbehave.”"I guess it’s just a management choice, and if they decided to do that they”ll have to deal with the consequences of it,” Nold added.Tri-County said it has hired 18 additional part-time security officers who will be stationed at 10 different mall entrances to check identification.
If you’re not 18 and without an adult, you’ll have to leave the mall on Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. until closing.Newport on the Levee and Dayton Mall have similar youth escort policies.
We’ve now had the sixth run of #16tovote on the 16th! As usual, we all got on Twitter and tweeted why we want a lower voting age, with the #16tovote hashtag. This was the second time it’s been on a Friday. It had a lot of the usual spouting of short talking points, and it even got a bit conversational here and there. The next will be Monday, August 16, of course. As usual, here’s the recap!
Before the Committee of the Whole
of the Council of the District of Columbia
Testimony of
Larry T. Pretlow II, President
On behalf of the
DC Chapter of the National Youth Rights Association
on
Reforming the Youth Advisory Council
July 10, 2010
First of all, thank you to Chairman Gray and the Council for holding this hearing and inviting the youth of the city to come and share their views on issues that affect us all. As President of the DC Chapter of the National Youth Rights Association I understand all too well the difficulties young people have in being heard and being taken seriously. This is a wonderful opportunity and I thank the Council for extending this invitation to the youth of the city.
As we have seen so far here today, young people have many views, many needs, and many desires from their elected officials. Too often issues affecting young people are decided without their input or involvement. Often without them even knowing what is going on until it is too late. This hearing is a wonderful opportunity not just for young people to express themselves, but for the DC City Council to understand the desires of this very important part of their constituency.
This idea of young people sharing their concerns with the council is so great, I’d like to see it happen more often than every few years. DC needs a permanent avenue for soliciting the opinions of young residents and for giving them direct influence over the laws and rules that govern their lives. Giving young people a permanent place within city government will benefit DC youth and DC government alike.
Since 2002 DC has had a Youth Advisory Council. Some of our members have served on this council and it serves an important function, however there are several structural reasons that prevent the Youth Advisory Council from doing the most amount of good for the city and for our youth. If the DC Youth Advisory Council is to be a credible representative of our city’s youth, it needs to be able to speak freely and independently. As it is currently housed within the mayor’s office, YAC is currently unable to do this. Pressure has been placed on the YAC to prevent it from speaking out against the mayor or his policies. As long as the YAC continues to be under the power of the mayor’s office it will never be able to speak freely or be a true voice for youth. Therefore NYRA-DC strongly urges that the Youth Advisory Council be made independent of the mayor’s office.
I am concerned also whether the Youth Advisory Council is truly representing the needs and wishes of the District’s youth. Many youth are not even aware of the Youth Advisory Council and fewer yet regularly communicate with their representatives on the Council. I myself am running for ANC commissioner in Ward 8 and know that there is nothing that connects a representative to the people better than running for office and campaigning for votes. To make the YAC truly representative of DC’s youth, NYRA-DC strongly urges that Youth Advisory Council members be elected once a year by DC students, the elections could be administered by DC’s high schools.
Finally, there is nothing more dis-empowering than to be promised an opportunity to be heard, express your views, and impact the lives of District residents and then be ignored. As you can see here today there are many youth who have opinions about DC laws because so many of DC laws affect them. To truly be given an opportunity to represent the interests of youth, the Youth Advisory Council must be given real, substantive decision making ability on the DC City Council. Unlike other DC residents, young people under 18 cannot vote for the Mayor, cannot vote for the Council, cannot vote for ANC, or any other office in the city. They are taxed, but are not represented. To ensure the Youth Advisory Council is fully able to represent our youth, NYRA-DC strongly urges that the YAC be given one vote on the DC City Council.
Our city knows what it is like to not control its destiny. Our city knows what it is like to face taxation without representation. Our city knows what it is like to have a non-voting delegate. Please do not disenfranchise young people the way that DC is itself disenfranchised. Please do the right thing and give our youth a real voice, a real say, and a real vote. Thank you.
Larry T. Pretlow II
President
National Youth Rights Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area
Phone: 301-979-5881
E-mail: Larry@dc.youthrights.org
Website: http://dc.youthrights.org
The fifth run of #16tovote on the 16th, our monthly Twitter campaign to raise awareness of lowering the voting age, has come and gone. Just like before, youth rights supporters on Twitter tweeted and retweeted a lot about lowering the voting age, using the #16tovote hashtag, spreading the word to all of their followers. While some of our usual participants were conspicuously absent, we got a lot of new participants who eagerly jumped into the fun! Also, since school is out now, some who usually couldn’t participate until late afternoon were able to get into it earlier in the day.
The sixth run will be, of course, on Friday, July 16. If you’re not already following NYRA on Twitter, do it now!
But for now, here’s the recap of the June edition of #16tovote on the 16th!
youthrights Hey, everybody! It’s time for yet another… #16tovote on the 16th!!! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age - http://bit.ly/cavxOT
teh_maxh Yay, it’s #16tovote day!
youthrights #16tovote on the 16th is our day we tweet and retweet a lot about why the voting age needs to be lowered! With the #16tovote hashtag. (more…)
Much has been made of the recent child obesity epidemic sweeping our nation. Turn on the news once a week and you’ll see at least ten stories about how kids aren’t getting enough exercise and eating too much bad food. All of these stories place the blame on the kids and to a much lesser extent, the parents. If you go to an online version of an article you’ll see comments along the lines of “parents should beat fat kids until they start exercising.” No one seems to ever stick up for the kids in any of this. This is really not surprising. It’s always easier for adults to blame the children for the problems the adults themselves created. That’s right, I said it. The blame for the current crisis lies in the lap of the adults in charge.
The most common thing we hear in these stories is that kids aren’t playing outside anymore because they’re shutting themselves in the house playing Xbox and that the parents aren’t making them go outside. The thing about that is, in many places (especially our inner cities), the parents can’t let their children play outside thanks to all the gangbangers and drive by shootings. Where are the police who are supposed to be making sure our streets are safe? They’re nowhere to be found most of the time. The gangs control neighborhoods because protecting people has taken a back seat to writing as many tickets as possible to generate money for the government in terms of police priorities. (more…)
I must take issue with the term 'a mere child,' for it has been my invariable experience that the company of a mere child is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult. - Fran Lebowitz
Why don't you 
Here’s Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age! 
#16tovote
Schwarzenegger: keeping violent video games out of the hands of our children since 1992.
