We the People

"We the People" is one of my own favorite poems in Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year because I truly believe in the message, which is: Let kids vote! Here's the poem:

We the People

There's a crazy guy:

Scares kids on our street
kicks old dogs
pours oil down the drain
cusses loud about
e-v-e-r-y-thing
hates "wasting money"
on schools

And he has the right to vote.

Then there's me, just fifteen:

I worry about war
watch the 6 o'clock news
raise money for the poor
plant trees in the park

But where's my vote?

Yesterday
I filled out forms
for Grandma, Mom,
and Aunty Lin
to get their ballots
(absentee)--

And next month,
come election time,
I won't have a vote, no,
I'll have three:

Grandma,
Mom,
Aunty Lin
and me--

We are
We the People.

My mother became a U.S. citizen in the 1970s but she has never voted in an election. When we'd ask her to vote, her answer was always, "No--if I vote, I know I'll get called for jury duty." So I stopped asking. Until last week. We were walking past a voter registration display and, out of impulse, I asked if she wanted to vote in November. Shocking me, she answered, "I would love to . . . but I don't know how." Well, that's easily solved: an absentee ballot. Thank goodness I asked!

Let's get kids asking their grandmothers, great-aunts, and neighbors if they need help voting. Wouldn't it be great if absentee ballot (or advance voting) parties became The Next Big Thing during the first week in November!