Young Votes

On November Seventh, 2006 I spent the entire day at a polling place in Drexel Hill. Of those who came to vote I counted on one hand those whom I considered between the age of 18 and 30. No wonder their issues are given short shift by the elderly politicians. The issues of youth are decided by politicians who forget what it is to strive and succeed at an age where the toughness of living begins. The bottom line, younger voters don't vote. It would take a political scientist to reason why that is. I have my own opinion, but why we don't take that serious problem and make it a top priority. Of course it is every persons right to exercise their vote. The right to vote was fought by those who spilt their blood so we could plot the course of America. History is replete with the freedom fighters who died for our right to vote, Martin Luther King, suffragettes, South African apartheid fighters, the purple fingers of Iraqi voters who risked life and limb to vote. So why are the youth and so many others so apathetic. Are we so caught up in our daily lives to undertake what those before us who gave their lives so we could exercise this most important right. Voting is the ultimate reform. Don't vote and the results are obvious. Apathy and uninvolvement is our Representatives and Legislators best friend. The less you care, the more they can keep you uninvolved, the more their actions are without scrutiny. Voting is the ultimate term limit reform, hold them to the fire and they're out. Look at Bryan Lentz and Joe Sestak. Thus leads me to my proposal to encourage voter participation. Statistics tell us voter participation is at an all time low. We need to reverse this trend, but lifelong career incumbents benefit from smaller turnouts and in many cases thwart turnout for their re-election. My proposal is to educate those who find other reasons not to vote and convince them to do so. I have five proposals to encourage voting. 1. Allow 17 year olds to vote only in primaries. Thus indoctrinating their civic responsibility. 2 .Create a tax credit for casting a ballot. 3. Produce public service announcements extoling the historical value of voting 4. Have the state air appeals to encorade young voters to participate. 5. Address the negatives that occur when uninvolvement and apathy results. These ideas are not borne of my position as a member of the Democratic Party. They are the realization that apathy is a scourge on our society. To be part of a Community entails an obligation to make it a better place when you are part of it. Most of all the young people who follow who will someday thank you for teaching them the value of citizenship that those who have come before you taught you.