chris.dhanaraj on Jul 10th 2008 National Voter Awareness Month
Written by: Chris Dhanaraj
In light of the fact that SAVE is espousing the idea, it would probably be appropriate for us to actually explain why we think it’s important to have one. I’m sure many would immediately scoff at the idea, remarking that anything and everything has some day allotted for it. They would call the idea trivial, with minimal impact. Look at Lincoln’s Day, or Memorial Day – school kids look at those days with little other than the glee of a day off of school. Having an official month would do nothing.
But yet, look at the month of February, the official Black History month. Elementary schools, high schools, even colleges showcase a startling amount of information and activities during this month designed to educate and inform our youth of cultured history of the African Americans. And it has worked to an absolutely phenomenal degree. When Black History month was first instituted in 1926, African Americans in general were still looked down upon. The sheer amount of inventions and learning that African American’s had committed into history was barely recalled in American history books. Yet with time and hard work, African Americans regained their rightful place in history books. Most now can instantly recall the names of George Washington Carver, a man who discovered and invented hundreds of items, or W.E.B. Dubois, one of the founders of the NAACP.
So we at SAVE are applying that successful model to the National Voter Awareness Month. Currently, there is tragic lack of education revolving around the concept of registering to vote and voting itself. A survey conducted by the Utah Statesman showed that in collegiate students, 93% percent of the population said they weren’t registered to vote simply because they didn’t know how, and 48% of registered students didn’t know where and when to vote.
Those numbers, quite simply, cannot remain. Ninety-three percent not registered because they don’t know how is not merely a failure on the part of the students, it’s a failure on the part of the entire American school systems. SAVE’s answer to try to combat that is the National Voter Awareness Month (”NVAM”), and it is our fervent hope that NVAM will be implemented as quickly as possible so we can start working our way to being an informed and involved student generation.
chris.dhanaraj on Jul 10th 2008 Article Reviews
Written by: Chris Dhanaraj
The Huffington Post released an article a week ago entitled “Education Voters” featuring our Executive Director Matthew Segal amongst other young, politically involved persons. The article’s exposition starts off with author Ben Terris looking at Matthew Segal’s work, and then transitions into the pressing issue of making the voters that organizations like SAVE get to the poll educated voters.
Terris traveled south to Charleston, South Carolina and met with a young woman where she related to him the problems of the education gap in America especially concerning her, an aspiring elementary school teacher who sees first hand the problems public schools face in America. Terris moved south to the Georgia Institute of Technology and ran into a Teachers for America seminar, where they related to him much of the same problems.
The essence of the article rings that education, and education policy, is an issue that is becoming more and more relevant to American citizens. From those most involved with the issue to just everyday citizens, the problem is becoming paramount. The disparity between public schools has become outrageous, and this article seeks to show that the American populace is, thankfully, realising this as well.
Check out the full article at the Huffington Post – Education Voters
chris.dhanaraj on Jul 10th 2008 Youth Vote
Written by: Noelle Petrillo
The youth vote was a hot topic this weekend for CNN, as their news brief
declared young voters make noise “in campaigns but not at polls.”
According to Carol Costello’s hot button story, youth voters are important
because they bring an “energy and enthusiasm that no one else can” to a
campaign. However, the article focuses on the concern that this enthusiasm
is not translating into votes. DNC Chairman Howard Dean commented on the
issue stating that Democrats are “getting 61 percent of the vote under 30.
Republican candidates look like the 1950s.” The story notes that the web
has been huge in influencing young voters as candidates, particularly
Senator Barack Obama reached out to them using networks like My Space and
MTV. But is this “energy and enthusiasm” enough? According to the
University of Virginia’s Youth Leadership Initiative, in 2006 there were
50 million people between the ages of 18 and 29 but only about 7 million
cast a ballot. Do you agree this energy among youth in the current
Presidential campaign won’t translate into votes?
Watch this news cast at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/19/young.voters/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
And let us know what you think!
