As young people all across the U.S. reach their 18th birthdays, they will become eligible to vote in their first presidential election in 2020. It’s shaping up to be a record turnout ever since the vote went to 18-year-olds in 1972, after the 26th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified.
Although the law was written to prevent government from denying a citizen who is at least 18 years old the right to vote, a number of state governments have found a way to do just that—and not only to 18-year-olds, but anyone who they think might vote against a favored candidate or proposition.
In a June 13, 2019, report for The Atlantic, writer Ron Brownstein cited Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist who specializes in voting behavior. McDonald stated that the greatest increase in eligible voters comes from “young people who turn 18 and immigrants who become citizens.”
The increase in eligible voters doesn’t necessarily determine how many of them vote. Who shows up to vote does. And who is turned away doesn’t.
In recent years, there has been a fair amount of political bluster about rampant voter fraud, which has not been substantiated except in a miniscule number of individual instances. What has been well-documented historically, however, is voter suppression to prevent or discourage particular groups of people from voting. Many tactics are used to disenfranchise voters from casting ballots that range from inconveniencing voters to physically intimidating them.
For example, Jim Crow laws were passed in southern states after the Civil War to suppress poor and racial minority voters. Such laws were made illegal after the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nevertheless, in 2013 the Supreme Court decided to eliminate Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act; the loss of Section 4, it has been argued, results in voter suppression among African-Americans. In the intervening years more than 1,000 polling places were closed that were in close proximity to where many African-American eligible voters live.
In 2014, attorneys for seven college students argued in a North Carolina case that a voter ID law suppresses the youth vote. According to an ABA Journal report by Debra Cassens Weiss on July 18, 2014, “The North Carolina law at issue eliminated same-day registration, shortened the period for early voting, and eliminated a program that allowed teens to fill out registration forms that took effect on their 18th birthday. A photo ID [would be required] but student IDs won’t be accepted and neither will out-of-state driver’s licenses, in most cases.”
The next presidential election will be held Nov. 3, 2020. If you are a teenager who has or will become eligible to vote before that time, it is important that you register to vote and know your rights.
Depending on where you live, you can become eligible to cast a ballot in all state and federal elections when you reach 18. Check out www.usa.gov/voter-registration-age-requirements for age requirements by state. Another good resource regarding voting rights is the League of Women Voters (www.lwv.org) whose mission is: Empowering voters. Defending democracy.
Your vote counts. Get registered and use it.
Andrew Malekoff is the executive director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, call 516-626-1971 or visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.
Halloween is just around the corner, and kids of all ages are gearing up for the festivities. Before your children go trick or treating, here are some tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to help ensure they have a safe holiday.
Plan costumes that are bright and reflective. Make sure that shoes fit well and that costumes are short enough to prevent tripping, entanglement or contact with flame.
Consider adding reflective tape or striping to costumes and Trick-or-Treat bags for greater visibility.
A parent or responsible adult should always accompany young children on their neighborhood rounds.
Obtain flashlights with fresh batteries for all children and their escorts.
If your older children are going alone, plan and review the route that is acceptable to you. Agree on a specific time when they should return home.
Only go to homes with a porch light on and never enter a home or car for a treat.
Check your child’s bag of candy for any unusual appearance or discoloration; tiny pinholes or tears in wrapper; and spoiled or unwrapped items.
Discard homemade items unless you know and trust the person who handed them out.
Click here for ideas on how to donate leftover or an overabundance of candy.
Because pedestrian injuries are the most common injuries to children on Halloween, remind trick-or-treaters:
Stay in a group and communicate where they will be going.
Remember reflective tape for costumes and trick-or-treat bags.
Remain on well-lit streets and always use the sidewalk.
If no sidewalk is available, walk at the far edge of the roadway facing traffic.
Never cut across yards or use alleys.
Only cross the street as a group in established crosswalks. Never cross between parked cars or out of driveways.
Don’t assume the right of way. Motorists may have trouble seeing trick-or-treaters. Just because one car stops, doesn’t mean others will!
And finally, keep your fur-babies safe on this holiday by keeping them indoors and away from the front door. It’s especially important to bring your black cat inside, since they are at an even greater risk of harm.
Have a happy and safe Halloween!
Take the Terror Out of Halloween
Is your youngster frightened of all the scary things associated with Halloween? Here’s a great idea to help: Make a visit to your local library and ask the librarian for books that help children see that Halloween is full of pretend things—some scary and lots of them just plain fun! Click here for some great choices.
The New York Times reported it this way: “In a remarkable turnabout, an international collaboration of researchers produced a series of analyses concluding that the advice [to eat less red meat], a bedrock of almost all dietary guidelines, is not backed by good scientific evidence.”
A few important points to note: The new study doesn’t dispute the conclusion that there is a possible increased risk for heart disease, cancer and early death from eating meat. The scientists did say, however, that the risk was so small that it didn’t justify the popular recommendation to cut down or cut out red meat altogether.
But many renowned experts, including those at The American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and others, insist that the risks are valid and that the new study is flawed.
So, what’s a parent to do?
One thing we know for sure: Eating lots of fresh (or frozen) fruits and vegetables is widely accepted to be a healthful decision. Getting your kids to love apples, blueberries, spinach, broccoli and other healthy fare is a smart move.
Plus, eating less red meat is good for the planet.
A study published in the journal Nature analyzed how the global food system impacts the planet. It cited greenhouse gases that are released by livestock, deforestation and water shortages as some of the ways meat production is damaging to the environment.
Of course, these concepts may be hard to sell to your burger-loving kids. If health of their bodies and the planet seem a bit abstract to them, perhaps they’ll be motivated to decrease or even eliminate their consumption of meat based on their concern for animal welfare.
Whatever your stance on this issue, here are some tips on making vegetables and fruits appealing to your kids, courtesy of healthychildren.org:
Provide fruits and vegetables as snacks. Keep fruit washed, cut up and in plain sight in the refrigerator.
For younger children, you may want to cut veggies and fruits in shapes that will make them fun and appealing for kids.
Serve salads more often. Get prewashed, bagged salad at the grocery store. Teach your child what an appropriate amount of salad dressing is and how it can be ordered on the side at restaurants.
Try out vegetarian recipes for spaghetti, lasagna, chili or other foods using vegetables instead of meat.
Include at least one leafy green or yellow vegetable for vitamin A such as spinach, broccoli, winter squash, greens, or carrots each day.
Include at least one vitamin C–rich fruit or vegetable—such as oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, melon, tomato and broccoli—each day.
Add a fruit or vegetable as part of every meal or snack. For example, you could put fruit on cereal, add a piece of fruit or small salad to your child’s lunch, use vegetables and dip for an after-school snack, or add a vegetable or two you want to try to the family’s dinner.
Be a role model—eat more fruits and vegetables yourself.
Singer Alanis Morissette had the foresight to prepare for a recurrence of postpartum depression following the birth of her third child [“Postpartum blues for Morissette,” Flash!, Oct. 8]. Sadly, this is not the case for most new moms who experience depression.
It is important to understand that baby blues represents mild ups and downs and stress that new moms might experience for a few weeks after giving birth. Postpartum depression is the result of factors that can include the shifting of reproductive hormones following delivery, sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, isolation, inadequate partner support, poverty and health issues of mom or baby.
Most women with postpartum depression are very hard on themselves, suffer in silence and harbor feelings of shame. This can spiral into hopelessness and a belief that things will never get better.
The good news, according to Sonia Murdoch, co-founder of the Postpartum Resource Center of New York, is that others can help. How? Just ask the question! Ask a new mother how she is doing — a first step toward eliminating the hopelessness that a new mom might be feeling. Ask the question.
Andrew Malekoff,
Long Beach
Editor’s note: The writer is executive director of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center, which operates the Diane Goldberg Maternal Depression program in Manhasset.
Despite the contentious politics that the public is exposed to on a daily basis, there are valuable lessons to be learned.
For example, I wonder how many working people are fully aware that they have whistle-blower protections and what they are.
Their only exposure, until most recently, may have been to whistleblowers that have been popularized in films like On the Waterfront, Serpico, All the President’s Men, Silkwood, and Erin Brockovich, to name just a few that might ring a bell.
As the executive director of a nonprofit children’s mental health agency, it is my responsibility to make sure that we have a whistleblower policy.
This is to ensure that all employees understand the organization’s commitment to prohibiting intimidation, harassment, discrimination or other retaliation for reporting actions that are illegal, unethical, and fraudulent or in violation of any organization policy.
According to Tim Barnett, a professor in the Department of Management and Information Systems at Mississippi State University, whistleblowing policies should have the following components as a minimum:
1. A clear statement that employees who are aware of possible wrongdoing within the organization have a responsibility to disclose that information to appropriate parties inside the organization; 2. The designation of specific individuals or groups outside the chain of command as complaint recipients; 3. A guarantee that employees who in good faith disclose perceived wrongdoing to the designated parties inside the organization will be protected from adverse employment consequences; and 4. The establishment of a fair and impartial investigative process.
The Whistleblower Protection Act that was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 1989 extends the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 to offer protections to federal government employees from retaliatory action for voluntarily disclosing information about dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government organization.
If you follow the news you know that a federal employee – a whistleblower, recently filed a complaint involving the president’s phone call with the Ukrainian president. The President denies that any wrongdoing occurred. He is entitled to a fair hearing. Congress is investigating.
In the meantime, the President has asked, “why aren’t we entitled to interview and learn everything about the whistleblower and also the person who gave all of the false information to him?” That’s a fair question. The simple answer is because it would be a violation of the protections detailed in the law.
According to University of South Carolina professor Xuhong Su, “anonymity is of paramount importance for both protecting whistleblowers, but also in the long run, to incentivize more acting whistleblowers along the road.”
The president went on to say that the whistleblower is “almost a spy” and made reference to how spies were dealt with in the past. He didn’t spell it out, but spies were subject to long prison sentences or execution.
In fact, in 1971 when U.S. military analyst Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers, exposing decision making regarding the Vietnam War, he was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 and faced 115 years in prison. The charges were later dismissed.
Imagine if a whistleblower at my workplace filed a report against me for some wrongdoing and when I learned of it if I announced, “I want that person in my office ASAP so I can get to the bottom of this.”
Although I’ve never been the subject of a whistleblower report, it would be most disconcerting to have someone unknown to me, report me for some alleged wrongdoing. Nevertheless, agency policy would prohibit me from doing anything other than waiting for a fair hearing.
I’m sure I would be upset and probably angry. And, I would wonder who made the report. I would likely speculate. I might have some fantasies about what to do about it. I’d like to think that I’d wait out the investigation. Would I make a death threat? I don’t think so.
Andrew Malekoff is the Executive director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, call (516) 626-1971 or visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.
