Jamal Watson

Voting should become a priority among America's you
by JAMAL E. WATSON
Amsterdam News Staff

Here's the good news: Of those young people between 18 and 29 who headed to the ballot box last Tuesday to cast a vote, 56 percent of them voted for John F. Kerry.

The bad news however is that the youth block in this year's election comprised roughly the same percentage of voters that it did four years ago. In short, young people, or the ''cell phone generation,'' as Reverend Jesse Jackson calls them, didn't register and vote at the pace that Democratic Party officials had hoped.

Had they done so, they may have been the determining factor that would've ultimately tilted the election over to Kerry and cemented a path of progressive politics for the next four years.

The lack of voter participation among youth is particularly disturbing, especially in light of the number of iconic figures who encouraged youth voting in this year's election. There was hip-hop P. Diddy's campaign, and public service announcements from mogul Russell Simmons aired on cable stations across the nation that attract youth watchers. But at the end of the day, none of these efforts made much of a dent in pushing young folks to the polls.

The excuse that grown adults give for why these wayward youth don't vote is that they have nothing or no one to vote for. How silly. The last time I checked, there was a discussion on the floor of the House of Representatives about possibly reinstating the draft. If that happens, young people between the ages of 18 and 29 will be the first to get shipped off to Iraq.

And how can any young person either in college or right out of school not worry about the escalating costs of college tuition and student loans, to say nothing about the prospects of finding a job in an economy that has been left in shambles under the Bush administration?

There are many issues that young folks ought to be concerned about. And had they ventured to vote, they would've collectively demonstrated to the world that they have power and, as such, would've had a seat at the table and had the ear of politicians who have long written this cohort off.

Sadly, we forget that it was young people in this country who awoke the conscience of the nation by demonstrating and protesting racial injustice in the 1960s. These students staged sit-ins and challenged white supremacy and ultimately made America better for Black Americans.

The same remains true in the 1970s, when student activists voiced their concerns and took to the street to protest America's unjust war in Vietnam. Whether at Kent State University or U.C. Berkeley, these students demonstrated their ability to challenge authority, and in doing so, transformed America.

I know. The issues are different today. The challenges are less clear. True, but the threats, however subtle, are still real. The Bush administration has been the most dangerous administration in recent memory and has favored policies that have been anti-young folks. His assaults on affirmative action and federally funded financial aid are alarming.

Perhaps there ought to be a requirement that goes something like this: all high school students must register to vote before they receive their diploma. Or better yet, voter registration is required before one can obtain a driver's license.

Yes, these are coercive incentives. But perhaps older and wiser adults can make the case for the implementation of such procedures by arguing that they know what's best for these young folks. The argument might even go something like this:

''In 20 years or so when the 18-year-olds are 38, they'll thank us for forcing them to do this very thing called voting that so many of our ancestors were denied.''

Perhaps then, young people will finally get in and show up at the polls.

Jamal Watson is the executive editor of the Amsterdam News. He can be reached at [email protected].