Posted on: Monday, July 4, 2005

ABOUT MEN

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Let's take a moment before the fireworks and picnics to look at how young Americans are seizing the opportunities laid out for them by Thomas Jefferson and the other members of the Continental Congress 229 years ago in Philadelphia.

Of the more than 66 million Americans ages 18-34, only 53 percent or 36,024,000 registered to vote during the 2004 cycle. Of those 36,024,000, only 29,924,000 actually voted, according to the Census Bureau. Voter participation among the 18-to-34 demographic was easily the lowest among all other age groups.

That is embarrassing.

I really don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, but if you don't have an opinion as a young American or if you're content to let your peers speak for you, then please pause before starting your Fourth of July celebrations. We're celebrating the birth of a nation today, the founding of a free society that created the consumer driven, pop-culture lifestyle that motivates most young people.

Many of my friends are obsessed with status symbols, and to the extent that I covet a smoke-colored Audi A8 and a high-definition television before football season, so am I.

But many of my friends and peers don't vote, and they regard the entire lead-up to any election as an interruption of their daily dose of sitcoms and TV mini-dramas. Some skip the primary and vote in the general.

These are well educated, young professionals, doctors, lawyers and architects who don't vote.

Why these people have decided to shirk their civic responsibility I don't know, and it would be unfair for me to speculate. But it doesn't make sense.

For myself, I like to have some say in the decision to select someone to represent my interests in government, especially since I pay taxes. I lose almost $400 a week to state and federal income tax alone, and until I moved back to Hawai'i, half of my federal refund went to pay state taxes in Missouri and Kansas.

The people we elect to office, whether it be the mayor, president, or state legislators, all have the ability to change or influence policies and practices that determine the amount of money we give back to the government. Once you're in the workforce, money becomes the foundation for your future — but like voting, that concept also seems lost on the young.

In the last letter he ever wrote on June 24, 1826, Thomas Jefferson declined an invitation to attend the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence because his health was failing. He reflects on the document's legacy: "That form ... restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion."

A vote is a catalytic opinion that anyone above the age of 18 can offer, regardless of how much money you make. It has to be counted, and it does matter.

Contact Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.