Posted by
Team Turk on Tuesday, September 05, 2006 5:10:25 PM
Three hours ago, I concluded a conversation that made me angry.
The crux of the conversation concerned youth participation in the democratic process. I was told flatly, “the people of your age group don’t show up. They will wear a candidate’s t-shirt, they will march in a parade for the candidate, but they will not show up and vote.”
If I may paraphrase a former Nixon aide, “That made me mad. It made me mad as heck. It made me God Darn mad by the time I got to the office.”
After reading the previously blogged Kansas City Star article, I was even angrier. Imagine, someone older actually generating a way for his daughter and her friends to become involved instead of simply denouncing their apathy.
Listen up man; those between eighteen and twenty-five are incredibly busy. When you were in school, you didn’t have the athletic commitments. You didn’t have the social and school commitments. You also didn’t have the internet, video games, or twenty-four communication. Your days mainly consisted of rising, attending school, and returning home.
I can understand that you are bitter. However, your disdain for children having what you didn’t or choosing to socialize instead of spending hours at a polling place shouldn’t inspire your judgment. It should make you want to facilitate their involvement.
I admit it part of this is I love technology. I grew up with it. I love to intertwine technology and politics. But that’s only half.
The other half of the equation is my anger with my party. We are technologically pathetic. We are so antiquated and backwards in our thinking it makes me want to puke. We don’t get it and I don’t know why. The cellular phone, the computer, the I-Pod…. these are the greatest inventions of the twentieth century. We don’t use them. We either find reasons not to or make fun of democrats who do.
I’ve got a message for the person I spoke with this morning and his peers either start finding ways to involve us or shut up when we’re not. Those great inventions… They could change the democratic process immeasurably, but only if we choose to let them. Otherwise they are just metal objects that light up.
Raymond Smalley