Category: NYRA Happenings

Because the National Youth Rights Association rocks!

Core Values

January 25, 2020

Suddenly, lowering the voting age to 16 is a mainstream issue.

It got a lot of support in Congress, if not enough. The issue is being asked of presidential candidates. More and more places are proposing the change. Nancy Pelosi is even claiming she’d always supported it, even though not really but hey still glad to have her on board now.

Wow.

This issue is one of NYRA’s “holy trinity”, along with drinking age and curfews. When someone would come up to our table at some event all like “the National Youth Rights Association? what’s that?” we’d reply that we’re about those three things and that we look at all the ways youth are discriminated against. They might react with a non-committal shrug and be on their way.

But now it’s 2020, and the 16 voting age has come shockingly close to becoming a thing nationwide. It’s not just coming from us and a few allies anymore. Somehow, some way, it caught at last and everyone is talking about it and seriously considering it.

So let’s say it happens. Hell, let’s say voting and drinking ages get dropped to 12 and curfew laws are all repealed. What would NYRA be anymore? Would there be any reason for such an organization to exist?

The answer is, yes, of course. In fact, I’d say NYRA is needed more than ever now.
Continue reading “Core Values”

And Greenbelt Makes Three

January 9, 2018

Usually when there’s a map of my region with triangles on it, it’s the Pepco Outage Map.

But here’s an awesome triangle for the region.

At one point farthest to the west, we have Takoma Park, the first of them, which did it May 13, 2013. The southernmost point is Hyattsville, the second, which did it January 20, 2015. And to the northeast, the third point, which did it January 8, 2018, is Greenbelt.

These three towns at these three points have all have lowered their municipal voting ages to 16! A move with lots of good reasons and lots to think about and lots of tweets back in the day.

I was there when Takoma Park and Hyattsville each sealed the deal. Sadly, I was unable to attend Greenbelt’s due to freezing rain encasing everything in ice. But at least the people who mattered were there.

The three towns are all right by each other, too. The idea is spreading throughout the region. College Park is inside the triangle, almost totally surrounded and must surely join in at some point! The geographical proximity commands it. You, too, Berwyn Heights, especially if College Park does get in on this. And you, New Carrollton, just outside the triangle to the southeast. Why should the Green Line terminus in Greenbelt have all the fun of being in a #16tovote town when you and your Orange Line terminus could as well? Also, perhaps you’d then provide a little encouragement to a certain town just a bit south of you, just off the above map…

Yes, I’m talking about you, Glenarden! Get it together!

Clusterfuck 2013

December 31, 2013

*pant* *wheeze* *gasp*

Huh, what? Is 2013 just about over? Ah, it is. What a ride. Well, let’s get right into it with months named like episodes and a lot of cryptic notes.

January: Ball of Yarn

-These are some bizarre interview questions.
-Reading Deathly Hallows again.
-Les Mis with Kathleen, Alexander, and Pam!

February: Baskets

-LOL Superbowl power outage
-Hey, Ravens won the Superbowl! Even if being a Redskins fan means I should hate them apparently.

March: In the Garden of Brookside

-Got some NYRA stuff!
-Ugh. Alex’s house caught fire.
-Bill saw last year’s recap and accused me of libel. Inb4 same with this one.
-Hmm. Job paying a lot less than previous and still didn’t get it because not qualified enough. :irked:
-Laser tag!
-#26 Freewill

April: The Right Side of History

-Me, to Takoma Park: “Lower the voting age! All the cool places are doing it!”
-Holy crap, is this thing actually going to pass?!

May: Fifteen Percent

-Aww, crap, I turned 30.
-Hardy? You’re going to get over the lymphoma, right? Right?
-Oh. Only months left tops. 🙁
-Oh no.
-RIP fellow NYRAnian, fellow board member
-And on that same day…
-In Takoma Park… “Councilmember Smith?” “Aye.” “Councilmember Seamens?” “Aye.” “Councilmember Schultz?” “Nay.” “Councilmember Male?” “Aye.” “Councilmember Grimes?” “Aye.” “Councilmember Daniels-Cohen?” “Aye.” “Mayor Williams?” “Aye.”
-And with that, the voting age was lowered to 16 in Takoma Park, MD.
-Just like that… #16tovote
-Oh. I got a job! Finally!
-I can do this. Must do a good job.
-So many minus-80 freezers!

June: Coffeemaker

-Hang on. One of the background music pieces in Lemmings is supposed to be Pachelbel’s Canon and I somehow never fucking knew this?! MIND BLOWN
-Whoa. What’s that thing hanging outside the walk-in freezer?
-Coworker: “If you stop moving, it starts chirping. If you still don’t move, it starts screaming. And they have to come drag your ass out.”
-Eep. Hope I don’t have to go in there!
-Hmm. We just got a week off because there isn’t anything to do. Oh, well.
-At least we were brought back.
-Finally telling off someone at NYRA who needed a good telling off. 😀
-Alright, I should probably be more specific, but if I did, he’d probably whine about libel again. :cute:

July: Stop! Hook up!

-Woo, Nationals game!
-Speeding?! You can get pulled over for speeding on I-270? Interesting.
-Okay, fine, I’ll run for the damn board again.
-Job just moved to me new location. Big but same basic job.
-Wow, those man-down devices for the walk-in freezers are loud!
-NYRAnians calling to confront ageist sushi restaurant in Virginia!
-I think I just scared WES. I called them out for ageism in a platform response. 😛
-What the mother of crap, did I just get pulled over again?
-What do you mean I was tail-gating?
-Huh? I need to go inside the walk-in freezer? Gulp…
-Okay, this isn’t so bad…
-And I’m in and out. Did what I needed to.
-LIKE A BOSS

August: Blueberry Muffin

-First the Snipers in Baltimore and then some more NYRAnians in DC.
-It’s not Annual Meeting day, but it damn well feels like it!
-Time for Kathleen to go to San Francisco.
-Even if it requires driving her to the airport at 5am. Sigh.
-Hmm. MLK Library may have to do for the AM.
-We’ll connect NYRA-Twin Cities to the DC AM by video chat!
-Okay, this worked out.
-If this AM sucked balls. Oh, well.

September: Maybe

-I’ve been laid off again?!
-Oh, lovely, now a prolonged power outage after thunderstorm… This will be a while…
-Hmm. Just five hours. Could have been a lot worse. Okay.
-OMG I met Heather Corinna!!!
-NYRA board meetings on Google Hangout? This is pretty awesome!

October: Labyrinth

-Meetings to plan Winter Festival!
-I want to play Kingdom Hearts again.
-Dear God, forgot how awesome this game is.
-Oh, no, I’ve got a cold. On Halloween!

November: Spinach Bean Thing

-Auction!
-Time for Sugarloaf climb!
-Dad sold the house? Oh no.
-I’ll make that spinach bean thing for community dinner.
-I’ll make it again for Thanksgiving!

December: A Platypus and a Sloth Skiing in the Alps

-Ordered holiday cards late again.
-Taking little brother to Winter Festival!
-I’m a smug skiing platypus!
-Uh oh. We’re leaking water into neighbor’s house somehow.
-Fucking heating condensation pipe! :irked:
-Cookies!
-Last Christmas in Grandma’s house. 🙁
-Followed by a week straight of moving shit out.
-And then settlement.
-And the house is no longer ours. As of this afternoon.
-But we went out to dinner.
-And I’ve just barely made a post every day in December!

And the ball is dropping now, we close the book on the veritable clusterfuck that was 2013! Oy.

Well, let’s see what 2014 has up its sleeve… :scared:

About Last Night

May 14, 2013

And now for a youth rights historical edition of…

Here’s to You!!!

So I raise my glass and say, “Here’s to you, Takoma Park!”

I wondered when it would happen, when some American location would finally do it. NYRA and others have been campaigning for it for many years. Some campaigns came close or at least had promise, until they were stalled by technicalities or just plain fizzled out. For each one that did, another cropped up somewhere before long.

For a couple years now, it seemed the first would be Lowell, MA.

Until last night, when Takoma Park, MD, right in the county I live in, beat them to the punch!

First there was the hearing on April 8, attended by NYRAnians Alex Koroknay-Palicz, Bill Bystricky, Alexander Cohen, and me. All four of us went to the podium during the evening and spoke in favor of the proposal. Almost unheard of for youth rights proposals, most of the room was in favor! I was second to last to speak and urged Takoma Park to be on the right side of history, to be the first, to do what Austria, Brazil, Argentina, and other international locations have already done with success, what Berkeley, CA and New Haven, CT had already attempted, what Lowell, MA was currently attempting.

Then a week later on April 15 was the First Reading, when the city councilmembers themselves expressed their views of the proposal. All but one were in favor! Three even started off saying that at first they thought it was a stupid idea but after thinking about it some more, were now gung-ho for it! The one dissenting councilmember spouted a lot of typical “teens aren’t mature enough, I saw one once who wore saggy pants”. When he realized he was outnumbered he instead suggested the change come with a lot of other changes to include young citizens more. So proposal passed 6-1.

And then came the Second Reading, on May 13. The dissenting councilmember suggested the issue be put on the ballot rather than voted on by the council, and the mayor seconded. Uh oh. So the councilmembers each said their piece about this new proposal. It’s okay. It failed 2-5. And then back to the original proposal and some more councilmember remarks.

And the second and final vote to set it in officially.

Again… 6-1. Proposal passes.

That’s right. It’s official.

Takoma Park, MD has lowered the voting age to 16, the first in the United States.

This is real. I saw it happen. This is a thing that has actually happened. Just like that.

In Takoma Park’s city elections in November, there will be the first legal 16-year-old voters in the country!

And this is just the first, with many to follow. Lowell. And who knows where else? It’s not just a lot of failed campaigns and foreign examples. Here is a domestic success, an inspiration to all others in the country. The beginning of what will lead to larger cities lowering their voting ages, and counties, and then whole states. And the entire country.

May 13, 2013 – NEVER FORGET!

Sacked the Gunman

March 14, 2013

Now for a quick-thinking, death-stopping edition of…

Here’s to You!!!!

So I raise my glass and say, “Here’s to you, Cypress Lake hero!”

I don’t actually know his name. Very few people do. But he’s a high school student who, when another student on his school bus pointed a gun at someone else and threatened to kill, he and two others leapt up and tackled him, likely saving one or more lives. Yay! They’re heroes!

So they went to school where they got awards and medals not unlike the final scene from Star Wars…

Oh, no, wait, actually he got suspended. For being involved in an incident “where a weapon was present”.

Well, NYRA and others are on it! My always awesome fellow board member Jeffrey Nadel is on the case and has appeared on a couple of news spots and radio shows talking all about it.

Also, here: SchoolBusHero.com

Go there, watch the video, and sign the petition. And get others to do the same.

Seriously, that principal just isn’t backing down on this, insisting that she “knows the full story”. After the original suspension, they made up some junk about the heroic student being insubordinate and uncooperative, something they added after this story got media attention and they wanted to cover their tracks. Yeah, sure, okay. 🙄

Because the student should totally have instead done nothing like a good little boy and watched his fellow students get killed. And because he didn’t allow people to die in front of him, he now has this suspension blemish on his record because “only I know the full story, he was uncooperative! uncooperative!” Genius!

Come on. Expunge the suspension and move on. The school fighting this is nonsense, even by school administrator standards.

I Don’t Even 2012

December 31, 2012

This year began with what felt like a theme park boat ride, the craft drifting into a dark tunnel, and up ahead you can hear the splashing of rough waters, as the drifting boat moves steadily quicker. To… what?

Well, to all this…

January: Sorting Socks

-Starting the year with something sweet. And Brookside.
-Rocky Horror Picture Show at WES: your argument has never been so invalid
-Ow! Why is my side hurting now?
-And why is… my chest pain back?! Noooo!
-Ash is dead! Ash lasted a while. Awww. 🙁
-And now I don’t feel so good…
-Stomach virus! Ack! Haven’t had one in eleven years!
-Supervisor: “Stomach virus? WTF? Go home!”
-Me: “I have to change the temperature chart first!”
-A NYRA board meeting that didn’t devolve into fighting? Holy crap!
Continue reading “I Don’t Even 2012”

#16tovote on the 16th – Just a Step Among Many

December 16, 2012

So today is sort of #16tovote on the 16th. I don’t run it anymore, though. Not from NYRA anyway since I no longer run that Twitter account due to some internal NYRA politics I don’t care to get into right now. But in sticking with tradition, I’ll say something else about it today.

There’s more to being a youth rights supporter than merely supporting a few goals. It’s a deeper conviction, a deeper consciousness. In the nearly three years since #16tovote on the 16th began, there have been a fair number of participants, though that’s considering participation can mean as little as retweeting one thing with a #16tovote hashtag on it.

A question might be… are all of these people youth rights supporters?

No.

I think I can safely say that. Don’t get me wrong. Plenty of them are. Plenty more might be if they learned more about the issues and philosophy. But supporting lowering the voting age to 16, if there is in fact even that much support and they don’t merely find the idea non-seriously interesting, does not alone indicate support for youth rights.

The way to decipher that is why they support lowering the age. And I don’t just mean the age-old (LOL) battle of lower vs abolish. I mean, for example, if they want a lower age because they believe it might help more Democrats get elected. Or they see it as a feel-good measure. Or they see it as part of a youth involvement campaign. Not that the last one there isn’t pro-youth rights in its own way, of course, but some youth involvement or engagement types have a way of operating under the idea youth are supposed to serve the wider community moreso than others.

Or even if their reasons for a lower voting age are genuinely for the sake of youth having the same voting rights in their own city and country as anyone else, you might wonder how they feel about other youth rights issues. A couple participants in #16tovote on the 16th I’ve seen also supporting corporal punishment or some other token of “parental property”. Or perhaps they make derogatory remarks about teen moms. Or express disgust at a young person swearing. This says they only support youth a little bit, that they like the idea of them voting but probably see them as rightfully inferior in other ways, for whatever reason.

Then again, supporting youth rights goes well beyond a laundry list of goals and issues. The other thing to consider is the individual’s politics and worldview. Sometimes, when an otherwise youth rights supporter seems surprisingly unsupportive of a certain youth rights issue, it might be less a blindspot or lack of understanding, and more that they have certain other values that have led them to that particular conclusion. How this usually manifests, however, is not so much an outright disagreement with the pro-youth rights goal but often a separate option or goal entirely that keeps youth rights very much in mind. And there’s value to the movement in this, as it provides more insight into our own issues and opens up more possibilities for the change we want to see.

It’s also wise to remember not every issue is a clear and cut choice between “pro-youth rights” and “anti-youth rights”. Sometimes both or all sides are a little bit of both.

Why even make this distinction? Well, it’s merely a matter of knowing who does and doesn’t really understand what we’re about, or how close or likely they are. When it comes to support for lowering the voting age, though, surely all the support it gets is welcome, since it’s the same first step regardless of reason or further goal. But it’s only wise to keep the further direction and overall philosophy in mind and let it be known. Otherwise things can go in strange other directions.

What It Means to Me

April 15, 2012

Yesterday was the third annual National Youth Rights Day. A few days ago, I tasked some of my fellow NYRAnians with sharing, in whatever way, why they supported youth rights. Perhaps a little hypocritical on my part, as I not only didn’t share my own but wasn’t even sure how to answer my own question for myself!

But then I realized. Yes, I do!

Youth rights has been such a major part of my life over the past several years that it’s hard to even pinpoint any single sources of inspiration anymore. And even before I found NYRA, there were many little things here and there, the recognition that people thought little of me during my teen years and before, and, of course, my 8th grade English teacher saying “There’s no such thing as a typical teenager.”

But there is an underlying motivation, and it’s a simple one.

In short… I know this is right.

And I know it works.

I’ve met youth who were raised in whatever way in less oppressive conditions than average. In 2006, Alex and I were tabling at a conference and next to us was a table for Albany Free School, and with an adult or two from the school was a group of ten-year-old students from there. These kids? They were actually pretty mature and socially competent. They saw our NYRA table and were happy that we existed and related their frustrations at an Albany mall that had a youth curfew (Fuck you, Crossgates!) and they bought a bunch of our buttons. I don’t remember many more details than that about them, but I recall being pleasantly amazed at these ten-year-olds, the product of a non-oppressive school and probably non-oppressive families (if they had parents cool enough to send them to the non-oppressive school). It was nice to be reminded all the info flyers in front of me on my own NYRA table weren’t just spouting nice-sounding ideas that had little basis in reality, but were encouraging real changes to the way young people are thought of and treated, encouraging freedom and respect, and here were comfortable, competent, dignified kids at the table beside us, having grown up with that respect, as living proof of it.

Unschoolers, too! Whether it’s that teen rebellion isn’t necessarily a thing or just the continual accounts of unschooling families of the quality of life of unschooled youth as compared to traditional school students (yeah, I know there’s a “consider the source” factor here), the comparison between the unschooled youth who are generally more included and their choices respected as opposed to the voiceless traditional students who are coerced and dictated to at every turn.
Continue reading “What It Means to Me”

#16tovote on the 16th – Typical

December 16, 2011

Weekday:

12:00am, the 16th: Introductory “yay it’s #16tovote on the 16th!” tweet along with link to Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age

12:02am: tweets some basic voting age point to get things started

12:10am: trying to think of another voting age tweet, comes up with crap

12:15am: finally just tweets link to recent voting age news article, if one’s available

12:30am: facepalms at Max’s “#16tovote or I’ll chop off your dick and shove it down your throat” tweet

1:00am: manages to tweet some good stuff, perhaps a couple tweets and/or retweets from regulars

1:30am: can’t come up with anything else for night but stays up late with it for some reason

2:00am: finally tweets link to NYRA voting age page or something from the downloads section, to get people through night

2:30am: goes to bed, ready to get up and get to work nice and early to resume
Continue reading “#16tovote on the 16th – Typical”

You Thought Otherwise?

December 15, 2011

I’ll never understand how there are corporal punishment supporters in NYRA. It’s something that shocked the hell out of me loooong ago when I was new on the forums and found there was anyone in the organization justifying the practice! I mean, in a youth rights context, it should be a no-brainer. One of the most basic aspects of supporting someone’s rights is supporting their right to not be assaulted for supposed “misbehavior”.

Got a reminder of it yesterday when an anti-corporal punishment article was posted to NYRA’s Facebook page. Seriously, click through that and check out all the comments.

Some people are all “WTF? I thought NYRA was only against corporal punishment in schools?!”

*facepalm*

Do they really think our opposition to corporal punishment is about WHO is hitting the kids rather than, you know, the idea of them being hit at all? Or, in general, did they not catch that we’re a “youth rights” organization?

Hell, in 2009, when our opposition to school paddling was added to our Education position paper, someone at the annual meeting out and asked me “this is just for schools, right? so if I had kids, I could still smack them?” I gave him a dirty look that made him recoil a bit and answered plainly “just for schools” and my look that seemed to add “but go fuck yourself”. I mentioned this to Alex later, since that guy was a friend of his, but Alex insisted the guy was joking. Eh, maybe.

While the words “youth rights” can make people think all kinds of different things, many of which way off what we do, you’d think freedom from assault that’s called “discipline” would be obvious. I wonder if these same people join or follow an LGBT org and are surprised they are for same-sex marriage. I wonder if they join or follow an animal rights org and are surprised they are against fur.