Drop Your Pants and Vote?

Image: Veterans Today



Drop Your Pants and Vote?

Or maybe just get your homework done.

Just what is the philosophy behind education nowadays?

Well, by golly, it seems there may be one, but so far it seems short on objectives, long on procedure, and heavy on acronyms -- as if we needed more of those.

The Canadian Philosophy of Education Society [CPES]

• is a constituent body of the Canadian Association Foundations of Education [FOE], which is, itself, a constituent body of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education [CSSE].

Anybody can join and membership appears to be free, so that's something the average 16-year old might like -- because, if you're an average 16 year-old, free is where it's at.  Free club memberships, free beer/pot/smokes, free to stay out late at night and sleep til noon the next day, free to cheat on exams if absolutely necessary ...

And now they want to be free to have the <<kewl dude>> fun of voting.  LIfe's a blast, man!

Well, this is Yaya speaking, and here's what I think should be free: 

 - Health Care that includes Holistic Methods, Birth Control, and comprehensive Dental Care
 - Education at every level of ability, including how to prevent unwanted pregnancy, parenting skills and conservation of public and natural resources - regardless of one's major.

I might add that I think females should take full responsibility for avoiding pregnancy, and if all stigma were removed and schools taught personal responsibility in general, I'm sure they would. We haven't evolved very far if girls are still too embarrassed to ask for birth control, while boys who've "done it" are patted on the back. But it's a fact that condoms are not very reliable, nor are a lot of teen-aged boys.

And a sense of responsibility seems to me to be a prime requisite for participating in something as potentially good or damaging as a country's Government.

In my freebie list, I would also include public transportation, which could reduce the number of single-occupant vehicles on the roads, electric or otherwise.

Neither government nor employers should have to finance the care of a child through maternity/paternity leave, nor should infants spend their days away from their homes and in the care of disinterested strangers.

If properly educated, couples would know enough not to have children they can't afford or properly take care of. These should not be elective courses; they should be a requirement of high-school graduation.

This is not to say that governments should have the right to enforce birth control or terminations of pregnancy (any more than I think they should have the right to treat voluntary abortion as a crime rather than a personal moral issue), though governments most certainly need to retain the right to remove a  neglected and/or abused child from its environment.

It has to be acknowledged that gone are the days when an increase in population was desirable. We're having trouble enough raising the kids we've got, what with influences from TV, Movies, and bad teacher examples, and worse: using kids for political purposes.

Bloomberg: Letting 16-year-olds vote is a good idea

• I’ve been writing about the benefits of a lower voting age for years, but I always thought it was a theoretical question. No longer. On Thursday, the House actually held a vote on reducing the minimum age for federal elections, to 16 from 18. Although it didn’t come close to winning, a slim majority of House Democrats (and a lone Republican) went on record in support of the change.

Why do you suppose the Democrats voted to lower the voting age? Well, just think about why the Republicans didn't vote for it. And then realize why the Democrats would want a larger, more malleable voter base in the next election. It's a crass form of exploitation of children, and would open doors, no doubt, to even crasser forms.

It takes an exceptional 16-year-old to actually survive on his/her own, let alone have a realistic sense of for whom to vote.

According to TeenHelp.com:

• Most of the teenagers who run away from home are usually only gone for a couple of days. They realize very quickly how hard it is to survive by themselves and return back home.

Why do they run away? Well, what do they long most for?  Freedom. Freedom from homework, from curfews, from parental authority.  That's a natural part of growing up, and it should not be exploited for cynical, political purposes.

Veterans Today are very upset about the House vote, and, although I don't agree with everything they have to say, they do correctly outline what not only kids but most eligible voters show no sign yet of having stopped to consider:

• ...think of all the uses that require fossil fuel ingredients. Just to name a few: cosmetics, medicine, refrigeration, lubricants, carpeting, tile, tires, clothing, inks, electric battery casings, paints, dentures, telephones, toothpaste, waterproof containers, eyeglasses, and on and on. Hey . . . but not to worry . . . letting those sixteen year olds vote makes even better sense to these morons!

In the US, it's only since 1971 that 18 year olds were given the right to vote and Nixon won re-election by a landslide. Coincidence?  Well, he did promise to stop the Vietnam war and end conscription.

He also made friends with China, but went after Cuba like a madman, so one has to wonder if Communism ever really figured in the slaughter in Vietnam or was merely an excuse. Somehow I doubt that many teenagers thought about that when they voted for him. They just wanted, and quite justly, not to have to look forward to forced military service.

But they voted for a madman!  And now, ironically, though conscription is a thing of the past, the youth of America too often can't find jobs other than in the military, and have since  been dragged into countless wars.

Here's more on the growing campaign for lowering the voting age:

PPGReview: Why and how Canada should lower the voting age to 16

• In the current context of rapidly falling youth political participation, lowering the voting age to 16 could increase political engagement among youth, strengthen democracy by boosting voter turnout in the long term, and bring youth issues closer to the forefront.

Why is "falling youth political participation" considered a problem? Well, when you hear that youth enthusiasm will "strengthen democracy" (and I challenge anyone to actually define that phrase) in the context merely of adding to the number of voters, you know (or should know) that the real objective is entirely self-serving.

The PPG Review is the voice of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and its glibness alone should make us wonder about the future of Canadian politics. It's revealing that almost 65% its graduates choose to work in government above all of the other fields available to them. And they have, of course, been taught the political leanings of the school itself.

In other words, though these students will know very little of the real world of the average voter, they will ultimately be involved in decisions that influence that world.  And their grad students think that 16 year olds should be allowed to vote.

You saw above how Nixon got re-elected. Kids voted him back into office on a single issue: conscription.  If the Greta crowd were allowed to vote it would be for the leader who would most convincingly promise to stop "climate change", regardless of what other policies and downright criminal acts might be imposed upon the rest of us by a land-slide government.

Related on YYC: "Greta, Inc." Who Are The Real Friends of Science?

The image below is one produced by yet another of a growing list of websites that advocate dropping the voting age to 16. Note that their sign says "kids" which, in my opinion, is a direct admission that they lack the maturity to vote.

Let kids vote? How about 14's?  How about 12's or 10's.  They're kids too!

Image: YouthRights