We should bring the voting age down to sixteen. The reason
why the voting age should be sixteen, is that those adolescents are just two
years away from being considered an adult.
And that change, profoundly affects their future. As well at seventeen, a person can join the
military service with their parent’s permission, perhaps being put into ‘harm’s
way’.
At age sixteen kids can drop out of school. Why is that
legal? It shouldn’t be. If you can’t vote at age sixteen because you’re too young. Then, why should you be allowed to quit
school? Or to take on the burdens of an adult, and work longer hours? Where,
you’ll eventually most likely be paying more taxes over time to the government.
As well, you will be forced to drive a vehicle further earlier in your life,
raising your car insurance rates?
It is all fool-hardy to not allow a sixteen-year-old to
understand and know their rights, by exempting them from further education. As
well, as not allowing the sixteen-year-old to have some control over their future
by not giving them the right to vote.
We’ve raised the drinking age and the age of the use of
products with nicotine in them. Which were both smart ideas. This was to give
young adults a ‘Healthier’ and ‘Safer’ start to their future.
If we parents are expected to provide medical coverage for
our children till age twenty-six, let us dissect the reasoning for that. Is it
that the insurance companies, who have grown with greed lobbying to the ‘hilt’,
now have us by the ‘politicians’?
Or is it that we’ve grown complacent with how our public and
other school education institutions operate? Or when it comes to teaching our
children nutritional healthcare? Because you see, if we truly allowed cutting
edge nutritional education of children in grades K through 8. What would we
have? Let me tell you. Less illness. Lower
medical costs earlier in life, perhaps throughout life.
If we decided as a society that our schools offered meals limited
by what is able to bidden for. What then? What if we offered ‘only’ antibiotic
free meats, and non-GMO dairy products, what then? What if we did NOT offer ice
cream, chips, cookies and the like, what would we do? I’ll tell you what might
happen. As a matter of fact, I’ll give you an example:
When I was in second grade, we
learned how harmful nicotine was and that it was in cigarettes. Now mind you
this was the late 1960’s. My Dad was a heavy smoker. He smoked Lucky Strikes
and Camels, unfiltered cigarettes. He was a one to two pack a day
smoker. And by the time I was six, I knew this was deadly. So, one afternoon
after school my Dad stood in the kitchen. My mother was on the other side by the
kitchen stove. I stood a few feet away from my Dad.
My Dad took out a cigarette. I
remarked, “Daddy don’t do that, it will kill you. I love you.” He smiled an
impish grin with the cigarette hanging from the midline of his mouth, ready to
light a match. “Don’t you worry about that.” He replied. He lit the match. I blew
it out. His steel blue eyes immediately grew big. He looked through me. “Don’t you
do that, young lady.” My mother said nothing. My Dad went to light up again. Again,
I blew the match out. He scowled, “Young lady, I’m going to kick you across the
room.” I was petrified. Yet, I wanted to do the right thing. I was trying to save
his life. “Sorry Daddy. But I love you.” I heard my mother gasp, upon him
threatening to harm me. He queried, “Where did you learn that?” I replied, “At
school Daddy.” He responded. “It’s none of your business. Don’t do it again.” I acquiesced. And never did.
Not only did I never blow out anyone’s match as they lit up
a cigarette in front of me again. As well, I did Not become a smoker. I was one
of the ones who pushed for a non-smoking environment, even in the Marines. I
even did a speech on it in college. I openly pushed for it in the workplace in
the mid to late 1980’s. I was LOUD about it. I wanted to embarrass those who
chose to smoke. And, I have to say I haven’t changed.
Flashforward now here I live, I
have nearly none of the illnesses my parents were plagued by. I have birth
defects from the drug-hormone DES my mother took when she was pregnant with me.
Which has caused me pain and distress for all the life I’ve lived since I can
remember. I have asthma, yet I’m on no
medication. I control it with diet, positive thoughts and exercise. I’ve had asthma
since 1977, which was toward the first year of my parent’s marital separation.
About five years ago, my internist
whom I respect said, “My new staff (a huge hospital took over the medical
practice he is in) does not understand why you’re are not on any medications. I
can’t even explain it to them.” I replied, “Well, you know my diet. And you’ve
known me nearly twenty years. You know why I’m here? Right? I have a fight
coming up.” He nodded. He has seemed always so cool with my ultra-marathoning
and MMA fighting. I continued, “So, the EKG, tests so far good. Right?” He
replies, “Amazing. You have the lungs of a Blue Whale. EKG is great. It’s your
diet. It’s obvious. They just are not used to seeing that.” I replied, “Yeah
the nurse appeared angry that I was her mother’s age and not on some drug or
something.” I smirked. He nodded.
Funny now I look back and I recall as we now wear seatbelts,
by the way I did a speech on that in college too. People in class shunned me in
the early to mid-1980’s for that. As God-given, I stood my ground there too.
When I take a stand. I hold on like a hungered rabid animal.
Foaming at the mouth to its last breath. I remain steadfast. Because when I
know what’s right. I know what’s right. It’s that simple. ----Jody-Lynn Reicher
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