A photo taken of the crew of the Eleanor Bolling, a ship that was led by then famous world explorer Admiral William Byrd. Of note in this picture is a young man on the lower left named Billy Gawronski, who had undertaken an extraordinary journey of his own just to appear in this photo. (Image courtesy of Jósef Pilsudski Institute of America)

The day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day is often known as National Good Teen Day, a day dedicated to the teen spirit and image. Yet currently, very few teens are able to vote depending on where they live in the United States, much less make positive changes for those around them. However, history has shown that teens are capable of extraordinary accomplishments, even in the face of difficult adversities. Take one such story of Billy Gawronski.

Billy Gawronski was a young man living in Queens, New York. At the time, like many people of the day, they were fascinated by the thrilling adventures of Admiral William Byrd, the famed explorer from the early 20th century. Gawronski not only wanted to admire Byrd’s travels and accomplishments, but he wanted to be a part of them as well.

When Byrd announced that he was traveling to Antarctica in 1928, Gawronski came up with an ingenuous plan to be part of Byrd’s crew- he snuck on board Byrd’s flagship vessel, the Eleanor Bolling! Unfortunately, he was later caught before being subsequently returned to New York.

While Gawronski’s attempt was unsuccessful, it wasn’t without merit nor in vain- the young man apparently garnered quite a bit of attention for his brash escapade to be a part of Byrd’s crew by the news media of the day.

Not too long after the stowaway’s plans were foiled, still being as enthusiastic as ever, Gawronski attempted the same stunt a second time, this time traveling hundreds of miles all the way to Virginia. Gawronski had heard that Byrd’s crew was refueling in the area, so this once again provided him an opportunity to plead his case. Unlike with his previous attempt, he was once again foiled by the crew and taken to Admiral Byrd once more. This time, the crew took a liking to Gawronski, perhaps seeing a little bit of themselves in him. But his being able to travel with Byrd’s crew would have to be given the okay by the Admiral himself.

After once again pleading his case now that he had won over the crew and achieving some notoriety for his previous attempt, Byrd gives the approval for the young man to join his expedition to the South Pole. Eventually, Gawronski’s perseverance manages to win over the Admiral and he becomes part of the nearly two-year expedition to the South Pole.

Gawronski, for his troubles, gains some notoriety in his own right in the years that followed, garnering him many of his own accomplishments, including going to college after returning from the expedition he wanted to very urgently join. That opportunity itself was made possible by Admiral Byrd himself, who provided Gawronski’s letter of recommendation to enter college.

The moral of the story is that through perseverance, one can win even skeptics and people who previously shot down an idea. This goes the same with any endeavor, whether it is to pass a bill, promote awareness for a cause or fight on behalf a disadvantaged group. Gawronski showed that by not giving up, he was eventually able to achieve that outcome he wanted to achieve, even if he wasn’t successful at first.

Lowering the voting age to 16 can give other modern-day Gawronskis the ability to make change around them. Right now, not much change is going on. Rights are being rolled back, climate is still affecting people, leaders aren’t getting any younger, places aren’t any safer, etc. Very little change is happening.

Lower the voting age to 16 and maybe the United States can really make political changes for the better, just like Gawronski had done on achieving his dreams to be a young explorer.

Jester

Working on a national issue requires a platform to coordinate from. I have chosen Ring

A platform is currently being set up online where supporters of lowering the voting age can meet up. I believe Ring is the best app to use. I’ll provide the reasons below:

One year ago this week, European Parliamentary Member Terry Reintke announced that Germany had lowered its national voting age to 16. Around that same time, New Zealand began working to lower its national voting age to 16 after it was ruled by their supreme court that the current voting laws discriminated against young people.

Earlier this year in the United States, Rep. Grace Meng of New York re-introduced the national bill to lower the voting age to 16, House Joint Resolution 16, after its predecessor bill was not voted on on the House floor in the previous congressional session.

This summer, Brattleboro’s move to lower it’s municipal voting age to 16 doubled the number of states with cities with a voting age of 16. Maryland was previously the only state in the country that had a local voting age of 16. Now Vermont has been added to that list.

In July, I personally led a contingent of people across numerous organizations to discuss the merits of lowering the voting age to 16 at the Frontiers of Democracy Conference, which was held in Boston, Massachusetts. Among the members in the panel were contributors from NYRA(National Youth Rights Association), Children’s Voting Colloquium, the Vote16Research group and Generation Vote. I had also been in contact with chapters of March For Our Lives, Vote16USA and other supportive groups and individuals on discussing not only what actions we should take working together during the panel, but also steps we should take afterwards- I believe that time is now, and I believe it is time to band together to lower the United States’ federal voting age to 16.

So drawing upon the network connections, collaborators and contributors from the conference in Boston, I am reaching out today to all organizations, people and their networks who are addressing any issue that are affecting youth and their communities, to work together on lowering the national voting age to 16. If you’re reading this post today, it is because I have personally reached out to you or you were forwarded my email by someone I reached out to. I want to help your network deal with whatever issue you’re trying to address, but in order to do that, I need you to help me help you by throwing support to lower the voting age to 16.

There are several reasons I am making that outreach now and calling for your help. I have listed several of the most important reasons below, though it is by no means an exhaustive list- just the issues that likely impact the most people. However, the main idea is that by enfranchising young people, we can find solutions that are not just relevant to young people today, but also life-changing for them and useful to the communities they live in.

First, let’s start legislatively. As I mentioned above, we have House Joint Resolution 16. For people that say there’s little chance of passing it, look at cities in Maryland, and now Brattleboro, Vermont. More than a decade ago, there were no cities that had a lower voting age of 16. Then came along Takoma Park, Maryland in 2013. Then Hyattsville, then more cities. We didn’t have a city or state, but Takoma Park became that beacon of hope. Then several other cities joined that list, eventually now extending that vote to a second state. Would you have believed that we would have two states with a lower voting age of 16 in 2013? Even I would have found that hard to believe. But it is a fact today. We can do the same for the United States and enfranchise all 16-year old taxpaying voters if we can get HJR 16 voted on. Maryland, and now Vermont, have demonstrated nothing is impossible.

Politically, the past few months have shown that current leadership is not working because leaders tend to be older and do not seem representative of the constituents in their districts. Last month, our Congress went without a House Speaker for three full weeks! This caused a delay in hearing bills such as House Joint Resolution 23, or HJR 23, the predecessor to the current HJR 16 bill. In the previous presidential administration, we had three government shutdowns, one of which was the longest in U.S. history. Regardless of which party you lean to, this does not exude confidence in American government or leadership from those outside the nation’s borders. As of this week, we were once again almost to a point of government shutting down. This could be avoided if we had leaders who cared more about their ability to serve the people and do their job rather than being grandfathered into their job from constituents they can count on rather than dealing with a younger base constituency than we have at present.

Environmentally, 2023 was the hottest year on record. Not only have we seen the hottest summer temperatures of any year, but also had an above-normal year for storms and hurricanes. This summer was so above normal that we even had a tropical storm, Hilary, form on the Pacific Ocean side of the continental United States, something that rarely ever happens. These events are the result of climate being affected by human intervention, causing disruptive patterns in weather that are dangerous to health and safety. If we had more leaders in government like those who protest against groups or organizations that harm environments and regular climate, then we would be a long way off from these kinds of disasters. The fact that a lower voting age could potentially address these concerns yet has not happened at the federal level is concerning, as these issues aren’t just a 2023 problems, but a lifetime issue that young people will be dealing with for years to come.

Medically, we have just been through a horrible global pandemic that affected all corners of the globe. One might argue that lives are still being affected by COVID- those who not only lost people from the virus but also the people who became ill, survived today, but have to deal with the effects of long-COVID. Not only did we have a government that wasn’t completely organized around prevention, but when we eventually did have tools to fight the virus through a vaccine, it was available to those 16 years and older. Despite contributing to the safety of their community, paying taxes while also working at a time to keep local economies open due to the higher risk the virus posed for older workers and their local older counterparts, 16 year-olds who did not live in cities in Maryland that had lowered the voting age could not vote. Even after the pandemic has been reduced to its current levels compared to when vaccines first emerged and were available to young people, many youth still don’t have a vote.

On a personal safety level, not much has changed when it comes to gun violence compared to climate or the pandemic. For example, in the last few years after numerous events of gun violence around the country, we’re still plagued with gun violence today. I don’t need to quote any specific statistic or point to any specific event- because these are just so common that one doesn’t need to look outside our current year to see how violent our culture is. The last few years have shown things are getting more violent. Despite the best efforts to quell violence, it only seems to be rising, remaining high the last few years. Why is that? Perhaps because the people who are largely affected by that, many of whom are in schools, don’t have a vote? Imagine what the world would be like if we had a more sensible democratic constituency across the country who elected leaders who cared more about the actual safety of their constituents rather than the gains in their stock portfolio.

Militarily, we have two large conflicts going on in the world. One would have to be living under a huge rock to not be aware of either. There may possibly be more conflicts. Not only are our young people dealing with subpar health care at times, or the lack of availability thereof, but also exposed to the same risks of their personal safety from climate, violence and/or pandemics. Unlike their older counterparts, they also face the added risk of being drafted, one of the reasons we recently lowered the voting age in the first place. However, we didn’t lower it far enough, as those who have contributed to their local economy, who paid their federal taxes for the employment they hold to make a better life for themselves and their families, and have helped fight the global pandemic at the local level still don’t have a vote.

Economically, while we might not be in a recession, things are getting much harder to afford. Grocery items have gone up. Electronics have gone up. Housing prices have gone up, including rental units for apartments. Modes of transportation have gone up, whether one buys their own vehicle, commutes to their workplace or does a combination of both. More responsibilities are being placed on younger people trying to afford necessary tools of civilization without being given a platform to affect what is decided for them. They just have to live with it without a vote. When they do have a vote, the issues that previously affected them are either no longer relevant or are affecting a new set of people who again don’t have a platform to effect change.

There are many more reasons to lower the voting age, but if I listed them all out, kept discussing them with others or just debated them with those who disagreed or reinforced the beliefs of fellow supporters, the voting age would never be lowered. But actions in Germany have shown that you can lower the nation’s voting age to 16. Actions in New Zealand have shown that you can grow support for lowering the voting age at the national level. Cities in Maryland and Vermont have shown that it is possible in the United States, and I am telling you today reading, who either have worked with me on this issue, have heard about my efforts on this issue, have supported it yourself or are reading this because people in my network have decided to share this with you because they also support lowering the voting age to 16 that, yes, lowering the voting age to 16 in the United States is possible. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have bothered to write all of this.

The main point of my blog is to raise awareness of lowering the voting age. This particular post is because we have the ability to lower the voting age. That is why I am calling on all youth rights, causes and awareness raisers to join with me to help lower the national voting age in the United States to 16. Thank you.

Jester Jersey

A worker flexes his muscles. Like the worker, we need to build upon the gains we’ve made this summer regarding lowering the voting age to 16.

This summer, I traveled across the U.S. in order to bring greater advocacy to lowering the voting age. I spoke at Tufts University in Boston to bring greater awareness to the issue, and with the help of fellow collaborators, spoke to attendees of our conference during Tuft’s Frontiers of Democracy. Although there is no video recording of the event, members of NYRA(National Youth Rights Association), Children’s Voting Colloquium(CVC) & Generation Vote all contributed to the discussion.

It was also during the summer that we have added a new city, and state no less, to places that have lowered their municipal voting ages: Brattleboro, Vermont is now the 7th American municipality with a voting age of 16!

While this is great news for the movement, we still have pressing issues, such as climate change, gun violence and government dysfunction as we still don’t have a permanent Speaker of the House for two weeks now(Did you know our last Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, supported lowering the voting age to 16- twice? In 2015 & 2019 ). We also have hope of enfranchising a new generation also: House Joint Resolution 16, a legislative bill that can lowering the voting age to 16 nationwide.

We need to use this time to continue the momentum. It has been almost a year since Germany lowered their national voting age to 16, while New Zealand looks like it will be the next democratic country to join that list. We need to do the same for the United States too. I believe that reality is possible thanks to the work of various allies across the U.S. currently working on forming a national coalition of supporters.

That is why I am calling for the formation of a national coalition, the House Joint Resolution 16 Coalition, to continue that momentum to support Rep. Grace Meng’s bill. Anyone from any organization can join. The only prerequisite is to be supportive of lowering the voting age locally, state and/or nationally to 16.

By lowering the voting age now, we can make our public education institutions safer, fight climate change on behalf of young people who will have to live its consequences longer, fight bipartisan gridlock in Congress by allowing young people to vote for dependable representatives who represent their views and fight for better representation in society in general. Our schools are not getting any safer while our climate continues to deteriorate. At the same time, our leadership continues to get older while partisan gridlock continues, even to the point of paralyzing our very own government!

If none of these issues above are disturbing or serve as a wake up call that change should happen, I don’t know what will. Most people reading know someone, if not themselves directly, who is impacted by one, or more of the issues above in addition to other local issues that only affect them. Nothing will change so long as lowering the voting age does not happen. Other nations have already had a lowered voting age for years now. Others are already on that path or have done so recently. So why can’t the United States do the same?

At the same time, we can also enfranchise fellow youth across the country so they can deal with specific issues affecting them. In either case, we all win because democracy would be better while younger people will have a greater say in government. I believe now is the time form a national roundtable group from all the organizations out there to address the various issues that affect young people so they finally get the vote. I also believe we have enough of a diverse network with ample connections to make this happen. But lowering the voting age won’t happen automatically without some effort.

On the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, lowering the voting age seems even more possible than ever. But that window of opportunity is closing again, so we need to act fast. I believe lowering the voting age now can happen, but only if every supporter of the notion across the U.S. unites together to give the voiceless youth a voice.

Young people deserve a vote, and we will make sure they get that vote.

Jester Jersey

Tomorrow is September 17th, a day that is traditionally observed as Citizenship Day in the United States. But what is one of the hallmark activities of citizenship? One could say one of the main responsibilities of that would be voting.

During the summer, I and several organizations worked together to bring more awareness of the national bill, House Joint Resolution 16(HJ Res 16), a bill introduced by Rep. Grace Meng of New York. For those not aware of the bill, this piece of legislation seeks to lower the federal voting age for elections to 16.

While lowering the voting age is not a new issue for many supporters, some recent gains are. Globally, it has almost been a year since Germany has lowered its national voting age to 16, while New Zealand is currently achieving unprecedented accomplishments for the work activists are doing there. Meanwhile, nationally, we are up to seven local municipalities with a voting age of 16- a sixth city in Maryland has joined this small, coveted list of cities while a second state has now joined Maryland- Vermont’s very own Brattleboro, another city where lowering the voting age efforts have been really active the last few years.

The two recent gains above show that not only are 16-year olds ready to vote, so is the nation to allow them to. We just don’t have enough awareness of the issue because we’re not working together enough on the issue. That’s why we have HJ Res 16, and now it is up to us as supporters of this idea to continue the work that I have done during the summer- to band together all major individuals, organizations and other supporters who have expressed their own interest in enfranchising the next generation of voters & leaders. However, I cannot do this alone. I want your help and I want to help you.

By now, most of those reading probably have probably been contacted by me through email. If not yet, then shortly. There’s plenty of momentum to get young people enfranchised & involved in politics. If we don’t capitalize on this now, then young people will continue to not have their voices heard, make a difference in their local communities or in the country they call home.

In the past two weeks alone, we’ve had many news events relevant to lowering the voting age- UNC Chapel Hill had their second lockdown when school has hardly started; the U.S. government is once again in threat of shutting down, forcing young people to help their families weather the economic impacts much like they had during COVID; young people won’t be given credit for the contributions they made during the height of the pandemic, one that we’re still currently fighting & may possibly have to continue fighting as the colder months start to arrive again. The list goes on & on…

HJ Res 16 is good for this congressional term- from January 2023- January 2025. It is almost 2024. Should young people who have the most to lost and the much to gain be delayed the opportunity to make a difference in their circles, community & country? I don’t think so. We can all change that. That change begins once HJ Res 23 is passed, made into law & our young citizens & future leaders can vote.

Jester Jersey

I just wanted to send a special thanks to my team at Tufts University yesterday to help with the Frontiers of Democracy discussion panel to lower the voting age to 16. I think we all did a great job, brought more awareness to an important topic & had a great time while doing it. Big thanks to all the people on the team who helped out!

An empty conference panel. I’ll most likely be a participant in an upcoming panel later this summer to talk about lowering the voting age to 16.

This is pretty much a continuation of last month’s post, but with a twist. Rather than a call for panelists or a story about lowering the voting age, I wanted to talk about efforts by a local pioneering who was native to Boston to bring about change.

In the late 19th century, the world wasn’t a friendly place for women’s suffrage. It wouldn’t be until almost half a century later before women even got the right to vote in the United States. However, women suffragists did many things to change this, often voicing their opinion in the form of protests during the day. One such woman, Annie Londonderry, literally took her message around the world to bring about change & better attention to the plight of fellow women suffragists.

You can read more about Londonderry here, but the short story of it is, Londonderry had traveled around the world to advocate for greater rights for women. Women had very few rights compared to men in those days, despite the only reason preventing them from social mobilization was because society saw them as the wrong gender. Londonderry disagreed with this injustice and sought about for a way to change the world for the better.

Mrs. Londonderry began her global trip in late June of 1894, spending the next 15 months traveling around the world by bicycle to advocate for women’s suffrage. By late summer of 1895, the Boston native had made it back to her home city, bringing much attention to the plight of fellow suffragists of her time. In fact, her contribution was so notable that fellow famed women’s suffragist, Susan B. Anthony, weighed in on Mrs. Londonderry’s trek, which would not have been possible without the help of the bicycle: “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world“.

In 2015, I walked across the United States to bring attention to lowering the voting age to 16. Although my efforts might seem miniscule compared to what Londonderry had done more than a century prior, we share many commonalities. Like Londonderry, I believe it is the next frontier of suffrage in this modern world. It already exists in many places around the globe- you can find them online or read some of the numerous blog posts I’ve been writing over the years. We even have some cities in the United States that have already lowered the voting age. Like Londonderry, we both saw an injustice that we both wanted to solve, and actually did something about it. Finally, like Londonderry, we were both faced with insurmountable odds, yet continued to persevere.

However, unlike in Londonderry’s time, women had very few tools to fight with to enable women’s suffrage. Women were barred from voting, much less hold office, men were prioritized when talking to the public media and there were no social media platforms that existed. Even if such things were around at the time, men would have likely tried to also bar women from accessing it as a soapbox to air their grievances. Right now, we have House Joint Resolution 16, and now, a great opportunity to actually lower the voting age to 16 like the numerous places around the world that have already done so. Nothing is impossible if we work together, and the Frontiers of Democracy Conference is our shot to bring the issue of lowering the voting age to the forefront of mainstream media.

We might be able to lower the voting age now, we might not. We won’t know though until we try. While we’re in the midst of the basketball playoff season &,just finished March Madness & the emergency that the pandemic brought to the world, a quote often sticks out to me- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. I would rather take a shot at doing something & failing it, then to not have taken the shot & wondering with regret if I could have made a difference. It might be a long shot, but a chance is a chance, so we must take the opportunities we have before us & not waste them.

But like Londonderry in 1894, she had a dream that someday in the future, a woman’s voice would be equally valued as a man’s voice whether it be an opinion, a preference or any other statement that a woman weighed in on. Eventually, her dream became true. Her dream didn’t stay a dream- it became a reality. Like Londonderry, I too believe that we’re not too far from the edges of democracy, where we can bring in those at the edges of the frontier that have been too long excluded from the voting booth. Like Londonderry, I’m not just a dreamer, I’m a reality-maker. You too can make the dream of lowering the voting age to 16 a reality. We have that opportunity now.

Please support me & my allies working with me on lowering the voting age to16!

Jester Jersey