An early memory for me was waking up early on the day after the 1968 presidential election. I desperately wanted to know whether Richard Nixon or Hubert Humphrey would become our 46th President and without even rubbing my eyes, I asked my father for the result as soon as he waked me up for school. Politics was a regular discussion topic at the dinner table and I wish my parents were still around so I could have had a politics-fest last night.
One of the most encouraging aspects of the 2008 Presidential Election is the voter turnout. While still preliminary, it looks like the turnout may approach 64%, the highest since the Kennedy/Nixon election of 1960. Harold Martin School held its own mock election this week and the Town of Hopkinton was gracious enough to have “Kids Voting”. Clearly, the state of the economy and the candidates themselves combined to get citizens out to vote. My two college kids voted absentee and they joined the largest group of citizens ever to vote in this non-traditional fashion.
It’s never too young to talk politics in your household. Sure, you will want to express your own political beliefs to your children, but be sure to communicate the privilege we Americans have to be able to cast our vote and have it worth just as much as the most powerful person.
