YOUNG VOTERS

I have been thinking a lot about young people--especially about those who are now eligible to vote for the first time. They have good reason to be disenchanted. We older generations have not done well by them. We have abused the planet on which they must survive and we are leaving to them, and their children, and their children's children, the job of healing it. We have poisoned the very air they breathe. And in an overcrowded, overheated planet, we leave them a heritage of war and civil discord.

The political example we offer them is one of bitterness and stalemate. They are right to look askance at Washington, where Republicans hold sway and Democrats squabble about who's to blame. At the top of the pile is a president who lacks all moral authority and whose narcissistic self-interest is plain for anyone to see. Americans elected him--or rather, our deeply flawed electoral system enabled the election of a man unqualified and unfit for office.

And yet... we must somehow persuade these young folk that they can and must make a difference. There are some who, against all odds, are already passionately committed. They are better placed to talk to their more cynical peers than we, who have screwed things up so badly and whose lectures must ring hollow and hypocritical to young ears.

It is vital, so it seems to me, to help them persuade the youngest potential voters that their voice counts; that what happens in November is important to them and their future; that it is in their interest to speak up with their votes; that we--unworthily perhaps--depend on them to bring about the change we all so badly need.

So... if I can help to boost the efforts of these already-engaged young people in any way, I'd love to hear from them.