I joined NYRA in 2003 after reading about it in a news article about the voting age. This wasn’t my first introduction to youth rights—I’ve believed in youth rights, though I didn’t call it that in my own head, for as long as I can remember—but it was my first indication that other people believed…
This is my first blog post in far too long. In fact, I’ve been depressingly absent from NYRA for quite a while. Two things are bringing me back here. The first is that I suddenly find myself with a rare free few hours. The second is, oddly enough, my 21st birthday, which was almost two…
This was posted to the NYRA forums on January 15. It’s about time that someone thought about the power of science and did an actual statistical investigation into the risks of online social networking. The result? Social networking sites aren’t nearly as dangerous as some people would like us to think. I was particularly interested…
On Monday morning, NYRA’s executive director, Alex Koroknay-Palicz, appeared on Fox News’s Mike and Juliet Show. Joining him in a panel discussion of the drinking age was Candice Lightner, founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Since most of the panel was unreceptive to the idea of a lower drinking age, Alex broached discussion of the…
The difference in time between parts 1 and 2 and parts 2 and 3 should show you just how quickly this issue snowballed, as should the following sentence. On Monday night, October 22, the local curfew law was repealed. This comes about a month after the village board proposed the bill to repeal it. And…
It may seem strange that I posted “Part 2” after this title, but there was in fact a Part 1. It was posted December 8, 2006, so you have to go back quite a bit to find it. The post was about the opposition a few other students and myself were putting up to a…
My school’s youth rights club recently distributed a survey in history classes to see where students currently stand on various youth rights issues. We ended up getting back 742 responses, approximately half the school. First, we attempted to recreate a recently published survey that showed that many more students consider themselves capable of voting than…
A few weeks ago, I posted a thread on the NYRA forums about a curfew in a village near me for the nights of October 30 and 31. However, unlike most curfews, this one takes effect at 7 PM and affects everyone under 19. In light of the blatant disregard for the rights of young…
“Why are you in such a hurry to grow up?” It or some variation of it is the end of many debates on Youth Rights. It’s a simple way for an ageist to wriggle out of the tight spot in which they have been placed on the issues. “Just enjoy your childhood.” Anybody who has…
We’ve all had the feeling at some point. We’ve all seen a sign or been told something by a store employee, parent or school administrator that was just such an ageist injustice that it couldn’t go unchallenged. Even the least argumentative youth rights supporters must have felt the need to challenge a small ageist injustice…
