Right now, in the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave, there are people who are arguing for raising the voting age. There are people who think that our nation's young people have no business paying attention to what's going on around us or taking action to help form a more perfect union.
The time has come to demand leadership that encourages our nation's young people and respects and values our opinions and our voices. Allowing teenagers to pre-register to vote has the ability to increase turnout among the next generation of voters. The cost to implement such a program would be minimal and there is no better investment we can make than to invest in encouraging more of our future leaders to become active participants in their local, state, and national elections.
I want to see all of America's young people have the opportunity to pre-register and be added to the voter rolls when they turn 18. I've started a petition to urge the leaders of our nation to come together and pass legislation that will give us this opportunity.
Give All of America's Teenagers the Ability to Pre-Register to Vote
Now, I need your help. I need you to sign this petition and share it with everyone you know. I would also like to see other people contacting and even starting petitions to their state lawmakers, urging them to get this done. I am just one voice and we will need many voices, especially the voices of our young people, in order to get our lawmakers to pay attention.
If you decide to start a petition or get a response from one of your elected representatives, please come and share it on my NC Youth Rock Facebook page.
It's time for America's children, young and old, to be seen and, more importantly, heard. Even the youngest citizens can take part by drawing a picture and sending it to their representatives.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Keepin' It Real
People can express a wide range of reactions, emotions, and moods. I made a funny video with my Friend Bryan O'Kelly Cox showing how some of these things are reflected in internet culture.
I read an article about Pat McCrory the other day. He said, "I want to speak to people while looking them in the eyes, so I can see their reaction." He wasn't looking me in the eye when he said this on a radio show and in response to me wanting to sit down face to face, "This is all very liberal groups using children as I think, um, props, to push a very far left agenda."
Pre-registration for teenagers to vote. That's the very far left agenda I'm pushing. My reaction, as screen captured from the above video:
McCrory also said in his recent interview, "I recognize that sentences can be parceled, things can be taken out of context and my political opponents and sometimes the media can run with that."
I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he just got caught up in the party politics. Many of us have been guilty of this. He doesn't know me. Maybe he doesn't have much experience with teenagers. Maybe he thinks politics is too confusing for us, like certain members of the North Carolina General Assembly.
Governor McCrory also said, "If I make a mistake, I'll own up to it and say we made a mistake."
The royal "we" hath made a mistake. I want no apologies from him. I think the young people of North Carolina deserve one though.
I read an article about Pat McCrory the other day. He said, "I want to speak to people while looking them in the eyes, so I can see their reaction." He wasn't looking me in the eye when he said this on a radio show and in response to me wanting to sit down face to face, "This is all very liberal groups using children as I think, um, props, to push a very far left agenda."
Pre-registration for teenagers to vote. That's the very far left agenda I'm pushing. My reaction, as screen captured from the above video:
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| Really? |
McCrory also said in his recent interview, "I recognize that sentences can be parceled, things can be taken out of context and my political opponents and sometimes the media can run with that."
I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he just got caught up in the party politics. Many of us have been guilty of this. He doesn't know me. Maybe he doesn't have much experience with teenagers. Maybe he thinks politics is too confusing for us, like certain members of the North Carolina General Assembly.
Governor McCrory also said, "If I make a mistake, I'll own up to it and say we made a mistake."
The royal "we" hath made a mistake. I want no apologies from him. I think the young people of North Carolina deserve one though.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Gratitude
A few people have been reading about me lately. I'm really not that amazing. What I am is extremely thankful. A lot of my readers are just finding out about me, but there are a lot of people who have been with me from the moment I started writing my blog and speaking out about issues I care about. To those people, I couldn't be doing any of this without your support and encouragement.
Haters gonna hate and there are a lot of really ignorant comments out there about me. Seriously y'all, forward together. No matter what I say or do, I can't please everyone and that's not my goal. My goal is to get the opportunity to pre-register to vote for as many teenagers as possible.
I really appreciate all the compliments, but this isn't about me. This is about young people all over NC and all over the country. This is about what kind of country we want to lead. Make no mistake, we will be leading this country someday. I don't know about you, but I would like to go back to the old motto, E pluribus unum, which means out of many, one.
Instead of wasting time trying to defend me to people who don't know me, don't want to know me, and only want to use me as their prop to discourage youth participation and spread hateful, discriminatory messages, please do this instead: Send a short email to one of your elected representatives. Send them a message promoting youth participation. If your state doesn't have pre-registration, ask for it. If your state does have pre-registration, ask for something else. You can get a lot of good ideas from this report recently published by a nonpartisan organization. http://www.civicyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CIRCLE-youthvoting-individualPages.pdf
Forward together, not one step back. When we turn on the television or get on the internet, it's easy to believe we live in a polarized world. It's easy to lose hope that we can, out of many, become one. But we can't lose that hope. We can't let the unreasonable few drown out the majority of American voices who are reasonable. We may not agree on all the issues but we should be able to agree on two basic truths. The first is that our voice and our vote matters. The second is that the future of our nation is in the hands of our young people.
Again, thanks to everyone for their support. Thank you to the writers who continue to inspire me every day. Thank you to the people who, from the start, believed in me and haven't given up on me. I promise I won't give up on us and won't give up on a better future and a more perfect union.
Haters gonna hate and there are a lot of really ignorant comments out there about me. Seriously y'all, forward together. No matter what I say or do, I can't please everyone and that's not my goal. My goal is to get the opportunity to pre-register to vote for as many teenagers as possible.
I really appreciate all the compliments, but this isn't about me. This is about young people all over NC and all over the country. This is about what kind of country we want to lead. Make no mistake, we will be leading this country someday. I don't know about you, but I would like to go back to the old motto, E pluribus unum, which means out of many, one.
Instead of wasting time trying to defend me to people who don't know me, don't want to know me, and only want to use me as their prop to discourage youth participation and spread hateful, discriminatory messages, please do this instead: Send a short email to one of your elected representatives. Send them a message promoting youth participation. If your state doesn't have pre-registration, ask for it. If your state does have pre-registration, ask for something else. You can get a lot of good ideas from this report recently published by a nonpartisan organization. http://www.civicyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CIRCLE-youthvoting-individualPages.pdf
Forward together, not one step back. When we turn on the television or get on the internet, it's easy to believe we live in a polarized world. It's easy to lose hope that we can, out of many, become one. But we can't lose that hope. We can't let the unreasonable few drown out the majority of American voices who are reasonable. We may not agree on all the issues but we should be able to agree on two basic truths. The first is that our voice and our vote matters. The second is that the future of our nation is in the hands of our young people.
Again, thanks to everyone for their support. Thank you to the writers who continue to inspire me every day. Thank you to the people who, from the start, believed in me and haven't given up on me. I promise I won't give up on us and won't give up on a better future and a more perfect union.