By Mallory St. Claire, 16; Jonathan Gainer, 15; Warren Stokes, 17; Michelle Hu, 16, Viktoria Kreydenko, 12; Joe St. Claire, 14, and Noelle Sercer, 13.
Published: March 5, 2008
As the political gambits of the 2008 campaigns kick into high gear, involvement by youth is higher than in any other election. According to the Pew Research Center, overall youth turnout – voters ages 17-20 - for the primaries has increased five percent from the 2004 elections.
With thousands of youth mobilized in support for politicians such as Ron Paul and Barack Obama, it’s becoming apparent that issues affecting youth need to be addressed. Unfortunately, many underage kids feel that their voices don’t matter to politicians.
“When the candidates come to visit other states, they should at least try to go to some schools and talk to the kids about their points of view … and see what they think needs to be improved in their community,” said Tia Rogers, 14, of Indianapolis.
Y-Press talked to groups of kids at two inner-city Indianapolis community centers to get a feel for which issues affected their lives most. Unsurprisingly, some of their top concerns – community improvement and school safety – are not getting a lot of air time with the candidates.
Here are the issues that most concern these inner-city youth. These stories and video pieces are projects of Y-Press’s larger coverage of the 2008 Democratic and Republican conventions.
Immigration
Many children on Indianapolis’ Westside have personal experiences with immigration issues. Their neighborhood has a large Hispanic population, and many have experienced the hardships of immigration in one way or another. These youth don’t support policies regulating border control or laws that lash out against illegal immigrants. They believe that immigrants who are educated and have not been in trouble with the law should be allowed to stay in the United States.
Emeterio Islas, 12, and Gabriela Olivares, 14, both had uncles deported.
“My uncle got caught and they sent him to jail for two years,” Gabriela said. “He’s still in jail right now. So after he got out, they sent him to Mexico, but then he came back to America, and then they caught him again and he’s in back in jail right now.”
Deportation is not the only problem these families face. Many feel they are mistreated and discriminated against in this country. Emeterio explained that he has been called names and stereotyped, even at school.
“If you speak English perfectly, the school still takes you to ESL,” he said.
Community improvement
Growing up in inner-city Indianapolis is as hard a lifestyle as that experienced by children in cities of similar size – dilapidated buildings, gang activity, and lack of services. Community improvement is an issue not often thought of as a national problem, but for kids in lower socio-economic classes, it affects every facet of their lives.
These kids would like to see more resources invested in their communities. In fact, many agreed with Sheryse Winston, 12, that it should be a national priority rather than mounting a war in a far-off country:
“I think we have the money, so I think we should use it in a positive way, instead of just using it to harm someone else or buying guns,” she said.
Among the improvements these youth would like to see are more health-care and community facilities. There are others, too -- Tia would like to build facilities to get the homeless off the streets, and Dylan Wallace-Maxwell, 16, would like to see abandoned houses torn down and replaced.
“People go there and do illegal things,” he said. “Tear them down. Make something that people can go to like community centers.”
Living in poor conditions seems to result in concern for others living in poor conditions. Some youth, like Tia, are outraged by government response to Katrina and the lack of reconstruction efforts in New Orleans:
“If I were the president, the first thing I would do is at least start try to build back up from Katrina, start getting houses rebuilt,” she said.
Politics Effects Me PersonallyThe War in Iraq
The war is a hot-button issue in the 2008 campaign; all of the candidates have integrated it into their political platforms.
It is also a major topic for these youth in Indianapolis, many of whom have relatives in the armed services. According to the Indianapolis Star, 102 Hoosiers have died in the Iraq war, as of Feb. 26. In all, 3,972 U.S. service members have died in the conflict, according to CNN.
When asked what they would ask a presidential candidate, many replied, “Why are we still fighting in Iraq?” As Tia said:
“Instead of just wanting to keep sending people out in the war, start bringing people home because this war is useless,” she said. “It's over. There's no more reason to fight. Everything's been already done. All you’re doing is making everything worse and worse and worse and worse.”
Many, like Lance Turentine, 14, and Gabriela, do not feel there is a clearly defined reason to remain in the bloody conflict, and that soldiers are making too many sacrifices:
“My main problem is the war,” he said. “I don't really understand what's going on or why it went on this long.”
“People just leave their families for a long time and they don’t get to be with their families on the holidays,” Gabriela added.
School environment
When talking about school environment, quality of facilities and safety are two issues mentioned by these low-income students.
For example, David Marzett, 13, said his public charter school on Indianapolis’ South Side is in disrepair and often in need of supplies. He also said he wished the school had a football team to keep kids out of trouble:
“I think they should fix the schools and give us more money because our school was built out of a factory, and we don’t have very much money to do anything,” he said.
Safety is a quality most suburban and private school attendees take for granted. Not so for many of these students. The National Institute of Education estimates that about 25 percent of schools nationwide suffer from moderately serious to serious attacks of theft and vandalism. To these youth, who often feel endangered on the streets and in their homes, school safety is a critical issue.
“Gangs affect everybody, even at schools and neighborhoods,” Dylan said.
“Some people don’t feel safe going outside or going to school. It’s a problem for some people.”
“For an example, we have a student in our school and he was talking about another gang and it started a big commotion and a lot of threatening and it made the school feel very unsafe,” Sheryse added.
Some youth talked about students bringing weapons to school and showing them off. Many of their peers even glorify gangs. As David said, some go as far as to emulate gang members, even if they are not involved:
“Some people are not really in gangs, they just act like they’re in a gang, but they’re so close they’d do anything for each other,” he said.
Copyright 2008 Y-Press
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