This is a view of the Morrison Room at the University of California Los Angeles, located at the Faculty Club on campus. This room saw the rebirth of the national, and possible a few state coalitions, movement to lower the voting age to 16.
Earlier this month, I had the honor to attend a two-day conference that signaled what would likely be the birth of the national movement to lower the voting age to 16 within the United States. At this time, I would like to introduce a short, latin phrase many will be familiar with- it’s “Vedi, veni, vici” translated to “I came, I saw, I conquered”. Once you finish reading my post, you can see why I & many others felt the same way.
Over the course of two days, I met with dozens of members from their respective efforts across the country to lower the voting age to 16. We had quite the representation across the United States, of course. But representatives weren’t just from nearby areas like California, but we had representatives from the east coast, including New York, New Jersey, Maine & Maryland. The Midwest/Great plains region also had ample representation, as people also came from Minneapolis Minnesota & Houston, Texas to represent their interests in seeing movements from out there too.
Day 1
On the first day, we got to hear from panelists from specific areas that have active movements, as well as from places that have already lowered the voting age to 16 for general elections, such as Albany, CA. We also saw speakers from cities that have lowered the voting age for school board elections, such as Oakland, California & Newark, New Jersey(the latter of which bears part of my last name!). Below are the contents of the first day of convening.
The first day was quite a doozy, so after all the activities & a tour of the UCLA campus, we retreated to our respective housing locations before gearing up an action-packed second day.
Day 2
The second day was not only a day for following up on connections made the previous day, but also to make lasting mementos & conversations. For the former, we took photos of each other among the various groups that connected while also doing some activities with each other to do an overall group introduction, so we not only knew who was represented, but what each person was about, what they hoped to do with their respective movements & what piece of advice they could give to everyone else in the room.
Overall, both days were really refreshing because the movement was now alive again nationally, so we knew that we weren’t only individuals or small groups working in obscurity & in solitude. We felt seen. We felt heard. Finally, the work I have been doing in the last decade has been acknowledged!
More importantly, it wasn’t just me now who wanted to lower the voting age to 16- it was our connected group as a whole: my fellow brothers & sisters. I was not longer alone!
In this manner, it now became “Veni, vidi, vici, coniuncti sumus”, or translated roughly as “I came (alone), I saw (us convening together), I conquered (shared my story) & we connected (amongst ourselves)”. We came separate, from our respective corners of the country, with some traveling farther than others, but we left together with a greater sense of appreciation of the work we are each doing.
We saw each other as equals, regardless of how big our group was, but now we must work together to give equity to others where we call home. For that, we will continue to push the Vote at 16 agenda nationwide through all of the contacts we have made during the convening, to build coalitions across the country & locally, to empower young voices.
I cannot wait to see what the future collaborative efforts will look like!
This was a group photo of all the attendees in the room at the opening of the blog!(I’m somewhere in the middle, [second to the back with hat!])
I look forward to seeing what’s next for the voting at 16 movement!
Jester Jersey
#16ToVoteAdvocacyProject 