Yesterday, I sat on a panel of community members who spent the morning quizzing high school students about the United States government as they prepared for the state We the People contest. We the people is, not only the start the preamble of the US Constitution, but it is also a competition in which students write essays as a team, defend them, and answer various questions ranging from the origins of the Constitution to its modern application. The federal government used to subsidize this program in schools, but now Wyoming is one of the few states that maintains it.
The title itself, We the People, implies many things, that the participants, many of whom will be able to vote in this next presidential election, are active participants in the political process, they are the people for whom the Constitution was written, and their interest in the contest has fostered important knowledge that they will hopefully carry with them for the rest of their life.
The five-person panel on which I sat featured a man from the Sheridan Chamber of Commerce, a local attorney, an AP US History teacher, a college graduate with a background in international relations, and myself. We sat in a backroom of the library all morning discussing with the students the various ideas necessary to make the constitution a living and breathing document that impacts their daily life. The idea that stands out in my mind is the idea of civic virtue, the emphasis of the "office" of the citizen, the putting aside of personal interests for the common good. It is the focus of President John Kennedy's famous quotation, "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." Civic virtue can only reach its potential through a well-informed and engaged populous, especially as its most important facet is the vote.
It was honestly fun to discuss the sanctity of the vote with engaged teenagers who haven't officially voted yet. It is a revered right that was discussed with the utmost respect. And, I have no doubt in my mind that these students will take full advantage of it when the time comes, but what about other young adults my age, who represent the lowest voting numbers and who are part of the 93 million eligible voters who didn't vote in the last election? Doesn't this represent a frightening apathy and a stark contrast to what I saw yesterday?
Voter turnout for the historic 2008 election reached 57%. The 2012 election dropped several percentage points to 54%, and the all-time high for voter turnout was in the low sixties. The students listed a lot of reasons why Americans don't vote: laziness, too busy, general disenchantment, and also listed possible solutions, but very few of them seemed truly feasible. Yet, I know for a fact these students would vote tomorrow if they could. Why? They have become engaged in the political process, they realized their personal stake in what goes on in this country, and they've asked it "what can I do for you."
Now, as I've mentioned in past articles, my generation is a powerfully connected generation. We have more information thrown at us daily than the founding fathers of the United States would have seen in a week's time. Thomas Jefferson drafted a bill in the 1780s, which was "A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge" that promoted education as a means to increase civic virtue and citizen participation in government; in 2016, the information he sought to share about American rights and liberties is just a click away.
Today, we can call our representatives, watch C-SPAN, and follow our Senators on Twitter, but once our leaders truly validate us as a generation, all of our quirks, our technology, our lifestyles, the whole voting dynamic could change.Therefore, I encourage those older than us, our Representatives, our Senators, our local officials to initiate a renewed effort to engage youth, to not be afraid to discuss the issues that interest us, to actively participate with us, and to seek our counsel.
President Obama brought young people to vote in droves because he capitalized on social media and by visiting college campuses, John Kennedy initiated the Peace Corps to use youth to promote liberty and development, and Thomas Jefferson was only 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence (Not impressed? The youngest signer was Edward Rutledge from South Carolina at 26.). I tell you, young people are engaged and want something to believe in, we are following the current presidential election, we want to participate and make a change, it's time that is recognized.
If we change this dynamic, our government can truly be one of, by, and for the people. We ARE the people.
