Great article on bigotry, politics and the right to vote

http://patrickhenrythinktank.org/feature.html


When will the bigotry end? When will the bigots stop being proud of their elitism?

by Natasha H. (age 14)

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A standard feature of discrimination is that oppressors often convince themselves that they are doing a favor to those oppressed. After all, if those discriminated against tried to have a say in their own lives, they would only fail and wind up worse off than if the oppression continued forever. Blacks weren’t considered smart enough to survive without a white master, despite the fact that they had been surviving much better without the whites for centuries before they were kidnapped and placed into slavery. Heathens couldn’t be saved unless they agreed to join the particular brand of Christianity that was held by those trying to rescue their souls. Then they were only ok if they continued to do what the right Christians told them to do. What did women need with jobs or the vote? They only existed to follow the instructions of their husbands. Children aren’t considered competent enough to have a say in whether the planet will be blown up by the adults before the younger generation reaches adulthood. They need to be segregated and herded like cattle into prisons (called schools) where the teachers often know less than the students, where advanced students are discouraged from learning, and where kids must give up their independent personalities and willingly submit to brainwashing or to forced drugging. That’s fair isn’t it? All of the above discrimination is fair and benevolent if you listen to the racists, religionists, sexists and ageists. So do these bigots deserve a medal of honor for their kindness or are the oppressed groups worthy of rights and freedom?

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When narrow-minded people wish to continue discrimination on a permanent basis, they simply refuse those discriminated against the right to vote.

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Adults would have kids believe that voting is more complicated than piloting a plane alone, driving a car, writing books, composing operas, designing computer programs, working long hours, filing out a tax form, joining the military, graduating from college or graduate school, committing the most serious felonies, or being a victim of discrimination. For kids, voting would be a lot safer than a lot of the other activities in which they engage. Most kids aren’t dumb enough to trust a vote count to a computer. Many kids could actually design the rigging program that would allow the candidate of their choice to win an election on voting computers too many adults are gullible enough to trust. Even this kid knows how to alter the vote count in a Diebold tabulator, such as the one adults in this writer’s county trusted last November Perhaps the real basis of the bigotry is that adults want to remain ignorant and voting kids may teach them something about democracy.

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The better question may be “why are those who are bigoted against children allowed to vote?” Usually the most bigoted individuals in society are the most ignorant. Do we really want ignorant people voting? While there are lots of reasons to give those under the age of eighteen the vote, there are more reasons to wonder whether the majority of those over eighteen have the mental capacity to exercise their vote properly. The best reasons to doubt the voting capabilities of the adult generation are the elections (or pseudo-elections) of George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Tom Delay, Ben Nelson, James Sensenbrenner, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Frist, and Harry Reid. My generation would have picked leaders more like Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, Cynthia McKinney, Jim McDermott, Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul. All major parties have a lot for which to answer when they nominate tyrants who blindly obey Raytheon and ignore their constituents. My generation can do a lot to clean things up. But we won’t disenfranchise the adults who have messed up this county. The adults can be thankful that my generation wants to empower Americans – not dis-empower them as the adult generation has done to us.

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Copyright ©2005 by Natasha H. All rights reserved.

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The article goes on to praise California State Senator John Vasconcellos (who retired from the California legislature earlier this year). He introduced a bill in California last year to give a partial vote to 14 year olds. It also praises Congressman Dennis Kucinich for his work in protecting everyone's rights.

The political parties don't come off too well and neither do adults who want to overturn elections or to deprive kids of the right to vote.

That's why kids have difficulty filing for trademarks on their own products and organizations. They need to have an adult co-sign for them to get the trademark. There are lots of child entrepreneurs around but they have no rights. At 18, most kids are in transition. It is not surprising that 18 years olds don't vote. They've probably become disillusioned with the system by then.

This is an excellent article. It's very-convincing except to blockheads.

Natasha, her brother and their parents put the caucus together and got over 400 people to sign up for it. Then her parents decided to take a back seat, but Natasha was nominated for and ran for an officer position. The first caucus meeting took place during the Friday resolutions committee meeting. The room was filled and there were people outside. Then word came through that the resolutions committee was about to hear the Iraq resolution. A lot of the PDA members and other progressives had to rush to the resolutions committee room just before the officer elections started and we missed the elections of the co-chairpersons and some of the other officers. But the PDA members managed to get back into the room before Natasha's position was voted on and she won by an extremely large margin. In many ways, this made her election the most legitimate of the caucus elections. If the other caucus officers are trying to throw out immigrants, youth members and officers without caucus approval, then they ought to resign in total disgrace. I hope that the behavior of these people doesn't discourage Natasha. She and her brother are two of the hardest workers the Democratic Party has.

This is the paragraph that sheds light on what is happening in the California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus:

"Or does the problem stem from the fact that kids make good slave-labor for political parties? The interest kids have in changing the world causes them to help out their favorite parties for long hours – only to be denied any rights or privileges by the parties who benefit from their hard work. This writer and another kid (my brother) co-wrote a resolution that inspired the creation of a progressive caucus within the California Democratic Party. Only one meeting has taken place so far, and, at that meeting, over 400 members of the caucus unanimously voted in by-laws allowing children and immigrants awaiting the right to vote to become members and officers. The members of the caucus decisively elected this writer to be one of the first officers of the caucus. They knew this writer’s age and choose this writer over adult members of the caucus who also ran for the position. However, some of the adult caucus officers, who want to run the caucus from the top down and who are opposed to sharing any power with a kid, don’t want to follow the democratic decision of the caucus. These officers, who seem to have the term “elected official” confused with the term “dictator,” have tried to subvert the will of the caucus, institute bigotry, kick out a chunk of the membership, and unilaterally alter the unanimously-adopted by-laws, which do not allow these prejudiced officers to take any of these undemocratic actions. These adult caucus officers also solicited this kid’s cooperation in an action this kid felt was unethical, dishonest and harmful to the California Democratic Party and to the caucus. This kid refused. My generation believes in ethics. Perhaps the adult officers trying to overturn democracy and encourage others to violate their code of ethics should get together with the gang in Florida that stopped the counting of the votes in 2000. They seem to have a similar mindset. Maybe, in the next caucus election, if much of the voting membership can successfully fight disenfranchisement, the caucus members will elect more kids to the board so that the members’ decision will have a greater chance of being enforced. " http://patrickhenrythinktank.org/feature.html

Bev Harris has warned about how we need to watch out for these people infiltrating our party. Why hasn't our party already taken a stand for the 16 year old vote? If the regressives who are trying to throw out the youth and immigrants within a "Democratic" caucus win and succeed in overturning elections and bylaws, what message will this send to voters about the Democratic Party? I think the names of those officers should be publicized so no one ever confuses them with progressives again.