Anonymous asked this question on 8/25/2000:
where should I go to get information on youth activism
JesseGordon gave this response on 8/26/2000:
There are a number of political activism web sites now running.
For example, http://www.speakout.com/ has a series of "activism centers" for the issue of your choice on its home page.
Volunteer info is at http://www.speakout.com/helpout/.
Writing letters to your reps is at http://www.speakout.com/SendMsg/
Signing petitions is at http://www.speakout.com/petitions/
A viewer asked this question on 8/7/2000:
Hi! I am 15 years old. I like politics a lot, everyone I know says that I would be a really good politician. What are some things that I can do? Do teenagers that can't vote have any say in what goes on in our country? What are some qualities that make a good politician or senator or anything? Please help!
madpol gave this response on 8/7/2000:
There are all kinds of things you can do.
Study the issues and write letters to the editor. Contact your local party committee or candidate's campaign office and volunteer to work on campaigns. Just because you don't have the vote yet, doesn't mean that you can't encourage others to use theirs.
The most important qualifications for anyone in elective office are good communications skill and a good memory. There are ways to fake this, but you will want to have as much of the real stuff as you can.
Develop your listening, critical reading, writing and speaking skills and do what you can to spend time hanging out with politicians. Develop a specialty, a few related issues on which you are an expert.
That way, when you do reach 18, people will already be thinking about you as part of the team.