At the same time that strides are being taken for youth rights in New York, progress towards a lower voting age is being made across the country, in California. In the state Assembly, Speaker-elect Karen Bass supports a lower voting age, and has been in contact with local youth rights activists, including NYRA Director Alex…
A recently formed NYRA chapter in New Jersey, NYRA-Bergen County, headed by high school junior Eric Kim, scored a victory in the fight against age discrimination by successfully desegregating a local McDonald’s restaurant. Late last year, the restaurant implemented and began enforcing a policy restricting one of their cash registers to customers 21 years old…
Arizona has become the latest state to consider lowering the voting age. State legislator Ed Ableser introduced a bill to amend the Arizona State Constitution to lower the voting age to 16 state wide. While only the minority party, there are signs that the Arizona Democratic Party would support this bill that would legally enfranchise…
Wednesday the New York Times printed an op-ed written by Anya Kamenetz entitled, “You’re 16, You’re Beautiful and You’re a Voter”. Kamenetz makes the case that the voting age, drinking age, credit card ownership and other age restrictions should be lowered to 16. She also describes competency testing as a more flexible standard than “increasingly…
Tomorrow is our primary here in Maryland, and other than the usual presidential candidate and delegates to pick out, it seems we are also to vote on Board of Education At Large. I could look up information on these people, see what they promise to do. And I will. Just one problem. Really, I’m in…
The following is a transcript of this video. Politicians and public interest groups are always looking to protect youth. They have a long list of so-called bad guys that they believe are a danger to young people. Even if in all this, they ignore the very many actual dangers youth face every day. Maybe there…
Tom from SSDP gave me a head’s up about an excellent op-ed in the New York Times today written by Anya Kamenetz. She basically makes the Epstein argument that we should create competency tests to grant rights to youth younger and in a more flexible fashion. Specifically she mentions voting, drinking, and credit card ownership,…
This blog entry is partially a response to the e-mail below, and partially a general comment, so not everything is gonna be directly related to or in response to this quoted bit: Well that is definitely an issue but not the only one. There are many steps it making this country bearable again and that…
Being a citizen in the wealthiest nation on the face of the planet affords you comforts that other countries could scarcely imagine. It also ensures that certain standards of treatment, climate control, clean water, sanitary food, are things that no person should have to worry about. The technology exists, and there is certainly enough money….
In August, Harwich High School teacher John Dickson and his Advanced Placement government class began an ambitious project: lowering the voting age in Massachusetts from 18 to 16. Student Matt van Gelder explains, “If you start voting early while you are at home and involved, you’re more likely to vote in the future.” Now that…
