Spring Break
State youth need to 'show up'
Chris Burks
Issue date: 9/12/08 Section: News
Instead of addressing real issues, such as the smaller percentage of Arkansas youth in higher education and the absence of the concomitant structural support for civic education and voter registration, we get a lecture on laziness and excuses about accessibility.
Are not students taking it upon themselves to work together with faculty, staff and townspeople to get an early voting site on campus a shining example of personal responsibility?
Obstacle # 2: Medium.
Traditional politicians don't speak in our medium. Hard-copy newspaper readership is down across the country, and only a few politicians understand Web 2.0 and online social networking. This reinforces a cycle of neglect.
Obstacle # 3: Message.
Typical politicians don't speak with the right message. Generally, young people care about the same issues as the rest of the population: Iraq, Darfur and the economy. We care more about education, but when politicians speaking down to us about how voting is 'cool' or 'hip,' they only continue a cycle of mutual neglect.
Solution # 1: Personal responsibility.
Yes, our generation must take more responsibility. We have to walk, ride, drive, or show up to vote by any means possible.
Solution # 2: Collective action.
There are real systemic challenges to voting that we can only address together. We should lobby the State Legislature to change the law requiring a super majority of County Board of Election Commissioners to move certain polling sites. We should spend more of our time on non-partisan voter registration. We should expand the reach of motor voter laws.
In the end, we have to get more wins for our state. Just as going 2-8 is isn't good enough, youth voting at 11 perent or child poverty at 25 percent falls well short. Vince Lombardi proclaimed that "winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is." Now is the time for our generation to step up and work together to get more wins for our state. First, we have to vote.
Are not students taking it upon themselves to work together with faculty, staff and townspeople to get an early voting site on campus a shining example of personal responsibility?
Obstacle # 2: Medium.
Traditional politicians don't speak in our medium. Hard-copy newspaper readership is down across the country, and only a few politicians understand Web 2.0 and online social networking. This reinforces a cycle of neglect.
Obstacle # 3: Message.
Typical politicians don't speak with the right message. Generally, young people care about the same issues as the rest of the population: Iraq, Darfur and the economy. We care more about education, but when politicians speaking down to us about how voting is 'cool' or 'hip,' they only continue a cycle of mutual neglect.
Solution # 1: Personal responsibility.
Yes, our generation must take more responsibility. We have to walk, ride, drive, or show up to vote by any means possible.
Solution # 2: Collective action.
There are real systemic challenges to voting that we can only address together. We should lobby the State Legislature to change the law requiring a super majority of County Board of Election Commissioners to move certain polling sites. We should spend more of our time on non-partisan voter registration. We should expand the reach of motor voter laws.
In the end, we have to get more wins for our state. Just as going 2-8 is isn't good enough, youth voting at 11 perent or child poverty at 25 percent falls well short. Vince Lombardi proclaimed that "winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is." Now is the time for our generation to step up and work together to get more wins for our state. First, we have to vote.
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