For some time we have bemoaned the lack of interest, and the limited participation, by the electorate in elections. In recent years, concern has been expressed, that the aging of our population has and will cause elections to favor the older versus the newer generations. As promised in Responsibility #4, recommendations will now be made which will enhance and enliven the election process, and thereby further encourage voter participation.

It is high time that minor children be fully recognized as citizens. One person, one vote should apply to them as well as any other citizen. We need only strike the words "who are eighteen years of age or older" from Amendment Article XXVI of the Constitution.

The weight of the laws fall on each member of a family, whether it number two, three, ten, or nineteen. Income tax law changes of the 1980s now require even infants to pay taxes, if their earned or investment income is a very small amount. If their parents claim them as dependents, they don't even have an exemption as each other taxpayer does. [If they qualify, citizens 65 or blind rate two or three exemptions.]

So children, like our ancestors, can now appropriately decry "taxation without representation". If politicians had had to court the votes of minors, for the past ten to fifteen years, perhaps they would have refrained from mortgaging the futures of our children and children's children.

Some may argue that children (minors) are not mature enough, to assume the responsibility of voting. Amendment XXVI, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, was not ratified until 1971. The amendment had been proposed on the basis that if citizens were old enough to die for their country at 18, they are old enough to vote at that age. By similar logic, if the government is going to spend the future wages of the children, minors should have a say in it. In like manner, if the prospect of future wars is dependent upon the conduct of foreign (and domestic) affairs by current governments, those who will fight in and pay for those wars should have a voice in choosing current governments.

Naysayers may acknowledge the appropriateness of minors voting, but still argue concerning their suitability to vote, vis-a-vis that of adults. The civics instruction they receive in school, probably better qualify the children to vote with purpose than a great many adults. Without a doubt, children are less likely to be conned by Willie Horton ads, and trickledown (tinkledown) malarkey than adults have been. Already, even the lowest grades in many schools hold mock elections, so that the children will fully appreciate the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. A candidate in the 1992 Presidential primaries was reported to have retreated from a grade school, when the students' questions proved to be too penetrating.

Children with the vote, along with their school instruction, will serve as catalysts to bring parents (aunts, uncles, and grandparents) into debating the issues, and exercising their franchise. Issues important to youth can be debated in Boy and Girl Scout meetings, in Sunday School and other religious instruction classes, at Boy's and Girl's Clubs sponsored workshops, etc.

These early exposures to the political process will prepare the children, and encourage their folks, to accomplish the preelection activities recommended in Responsibility #3. For their vote to be exercised, even infants could be required to be brought to the voting booth. [Parents would enter a proxy vote until a child is old enough to reason, say 5 or 6 years old.] By the time the child reaches adulthood, the privilege and responsibility of the franchise will have become habitual.

In earlier essays, we spoke of the awesome responsibilities that parents bear for the United States of America. Extending the vote to the children of the family will greatly empower the family to bring about good government.

If this empowerment had been accomplished 30 plus years ago, the damage that has been done to our families, and our nation, would not have occurred. If the Supreme Court had looked to the family first 20 years ago, over 26 million developing human beings would not have been killed in vain. If this greater voting power had been vested in the family, the nation would have steered clear of the abyss, and not set a foot on the slimy slope.