Lower the voting age
I am a sophomore at Lakewood High School and I believe we should lower the voting age to 16 for school district elections just as state Sen. Dominick Moreno and Rep. Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez have sponsored in House Bill 1149.
We teenagers have a stake in our future and in our education. We should be able to vote for officials who fund our education and set our standards. We are on the front line in standardized tests and in our curriculum; we see how it affects us, so why should we at least have a voice in who makes these policies?
It has also been shown in many developed countries that lowering the voting age starts a habit of voting that strengthens our democracy.
So if we want a stronger democracy and a more efficient education system, we should lower the voting age in Colorado to 16, at least for school district elections.
Spencer Wilcox, Golden
Our responsibilities as citizens
No one is going to save us. Not Trump, Bloomberg, Bolton or Mueller. There is no Democrat running who can save us. The problems we face are of our own making (sometimes assisted by outside forces, but we have been accomplices). We must save ourselves.
If you were born here, you are a citizen by a stroke of luck. Being a citizen brings rights, arguably more and better ones than most other countries. We should all be thankful for them; however, being a citizen also brings responsibilities.
Our freedom is not self-sustaining; it requires sacrifice, sometimes a very great sacrifice. It also requires participation, and to participate requires being informed. Read the Constitution, read and listen to people you agree with and, most importantly, to people you don’t agree with. Listen to understand, not just to formulate your reply.
In the aftermath of a disaster, we don’t ask, “who did you vote for?” — we just help. How can a country that rises to the occasion be this crippled by division?
Perhaps we need to forget about parties and politics, look around our own communities, see what needs to be done, roll up our sleeves and do it. Volunteer at a school, library or a soup kitchen; maybe pick up trash. When you vote, just pick the person you think will do the best job.
If we do, we might just save ourselves.
Amy Sylvain, Colorado Springs
How we choose
I remember campaigning door to door as a kid. One woman told me she would never vote for that candidate as he kept his hands in his pockets. Even as a teenager, I was struck by her criteria for choosing a president.
As I watch the debates, I realize we are put in a position to chose by how well a candidate attacks another candidate or delivers some one-liner. Is this any better than the woman choosing because the candidate kept his hands in this pocket? Yes, but we could do a lot better.
Maybe we should take a lesson from the show “The Voice” where the judges don’t see the singer before they choose. What if we couldn’t see the candidate as they respond to questions? With technology, we could even disguise their voices so they all sounded the same. We could then focus on content and better understand their thought process. We could then add this to our knowledge of what the candidate has done in their life, and what they care about and what we know of their abilities. Just a thought.
Timothy Brown, Denver
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
