Bringing Up the Vote

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

My boys are coming with me to vote tomorrow. They can alternate turning the notches and can pull the lever down together.


It is one of my clearest childhood memories – my mother taking me to vote in the 1980 presidential election. I cried because she voted for Ronald Reagan and I wanted her to vote for Jimmy Carter. Apparently, mothers do know best.


But the boys’ coming to vote with me actually has little to do with reliving my childhood experiences. It is about finding ways to imbue in them a sense of political activism that matters to me and my husband.


Kindness, passion, honesty, loyalty, compassion, and modesty – there are so many values I want my children to appreciate and absorb. But also high on my list, is a desire for them to understand that they can change the world, one vote, one letter, one rally, and one action at a time.


It’s difficult to explain to a 6-year-old what it means to be able to vote; what a privilege it is to be free to vote. I myself can barely imagine the sense of liberation in Afghanistan as men and women lined up to cast their ballots last month, let alone relate it to my children. Politics is not an easy subject to distill into a pintsized picture book.


These days, the link between voting and changing our world is tenuous at best, particularly as experienced by the youngest generation of voters. During the last presidential election, only 32% of 18-to 24-year-olds cast ballots.


“The chief reason that young voters give for not voting is that they think nobody is listening to them,” said Jack Doppelt, who wrote “Nonvoters: America’s No-Shows” and is an associate professor of journalism at Northwestern University. “And coupled with that, they don’t think politicians come through on what they say.”


But this election offers new reasons for young voters to turn out at the polls, and new voter registration rates are higher than they’ve ever been, particularly in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.


We will only know in a few weeks if young voters decided to make the effort to go to the polls, but for now, I wonder about the generations to come, and if it is possible as parents to strengthen the determination in our children to work to make the world a better place, one vote at a time.


I was part of the proverbial Generation X, which was most famous for one thing: apathy. We didn’t live through a world war, or the Civil Rights Movement, or the Women’s Movement, or the Vietnam Era. Until September 11, the closest thing my generation had come to experiencing a war was the Persian Gulf War, which lasted all of a few short months in 1991.


But even still, there were moments in my childhood where political activism and advocacy made its way to the surface. The Jews were trapped in the Soviet Union. “One, two, three, four, open up the Russian door. Five, six, seven, eight, let our people emigrate.” It was the first rally I participated in, in front of the United Nations.


I marched to protest the violence at Tiananmen Square. In high school, my best friend and I sat way in the back of a beat-up bus to go from New York to Washington to march in a pro-choice rally.


But our children are inheriting a far more complicated world. Maybe every generation of parents has echoed that sentiment. But the threat of terrorism seems genuinely new and terrifying. And for now, at least, if seems here to stay.


More than ever, we need to instill in our children a fundamental belief that they have an obligation to work to change the world, whether it be through letter writing, or voting, or marching, or supporting candidates, or even simply reading the newspaper and keeping track of current affairs.


And like so many childhood lessons, I believe it is the daily small acts that send the loudest message to our children about the power of the individual to create change.


Take your kids to vote and while you wait in line, discuss what freedoms matter to them most: the freedom to go to the park, play sports, or go to a movie. Your children are far more likely to understand the feeling of never being allowed to have candy again than to comprehend the new freedoms in Afghanistan.


Find age-appropriate books for them to read about the American Revolution. Talk about Thanksgiving in the context of religious freedom. And when your kids are old enough be sure to discuss with them the issues that matter to you, and take them to the rallies that you care about.


And of course, celebrate and appreciate the freedoms we have in America. There are many reasons to feel blessed to live in this country. After this campaign season, we might have to jog our memories to think of them. But it’s well worth the effort.



Readers can address their parenting questions to Ms. Berman at sberman@nysun.com.


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