YOUNG MEN LEARNING TO VOTE

Young men can do their own math on voting, but I’ll help: One man, one vote; one woman, one vote.

You have one vote, bro, and it may not seem like much, but that’s what it is. One. Vote.

Does it even matter enough to bother with?

One vote may not seem like much, but it’s a lot less if you don’t cast it.

Current polling news says there a lot of you between the ages of 18-34 leaning into your adult masculinity.

You’re no longer kids, no longer juveniles, no longer the beneficiary of sealed records of a misspent youth.

As an adult you will bear the full brunt of the law if you take up a life of crime.

That’s the deal, the hand you’re dealt in America: fuck up enough and the roof caves in to the point of living in a nightmare situation.

The Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn has yelp reviews:

Can I do negative stars for this one? Hmm. Where do I begin? The workers tend to be cruel, overpaid, all from the area so they know many of the people in there and thus, if you dont know them, you are the one getting busted for one too many blankets.

At mail call, the cops get jealous of the mail you get and it goes missing. The counselors have office hours they do not keep and to get ahold of them or an answer to your cop-out is impossible.

The place is packed with about 2300 people and the “old MDC’ is a crumbling crap hole. I spent two months here in 2007 waiting to get shipped to the midwest. The food is horrible, the dorms are loud, the laundry doesnt work and its so cold in here.

Visitation is the loudest I have ever seen and you have to do some really bogus searches. i.e. the cops want to look at you naked. If you have the misfortune of being stuck in a nyc federal prison, try to get to MCC. its way better, all things considered.

 

The People You Don’t Vote For

I’m not here to say you’ll go to some hellhole prison if you don’t vote, but if you don’t register to vote, if you sit it out, you might regret it.

Ask the closest baby boomer about their regrets. Block out some time for their answer.

Ask yourself if you’d want any of this:

 

. . . right-wing justices led by Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, along with Trump’s three conservative appointees, have upended decades of settled law on abortion, voting rights, climate change, and the constitutional separation of powers.

With Vice President Kamala Harris now at the top of the Democratic ticket, Trump’s particular brand of tough-guy masculinity may play an important role in his appeals to male voters, and especially young men, who have trended Republican in recent years.

“There’s a deliberate strategy by the Trump campaign to reach out to, especially, disaffected young men. A lot of those men care a lot about the economy, but I think they’re also drawn to the perception that Trump is very strong.”

There is also the possibility that Trump’s overtures to disaffected young men may have unintended effects, as they could motivate populations that are more likely to turn out in November.

“The potential downside is that you have the dramatic backlash among young women and young queer people, who tend to vote at a higher rate and participate in politics at a higher rate,” said Deckman.

“The backlash to that normalizing rhetoric of hypermasculinity and saying that the left is targeting men and hates men—I think the reality is, that also stands to, in fact, solidify more support for Democrats and for Harris among young voters overall.”

 

I’m a big fan of normalizing conversations on the issues facing young men.

Some old retread harping on his own problems, lashing out to blame any and all, is not a candidate as much as a ‘personality.’

The time of the ‘entertainer’ is over; self-enhancing bravado had its run; a poor example of aging is not worthy of your time.

Neither are all the scoundrels and suck-ups and hangs-on that come with the entertainer personality.

Instead of showtime, some young men need services the government offers. Or will.

Ask the nearest baby boomer about social security and medicare, about community education and policing.

Taxes and payroll deductions pay for government services to help people in need.

Young men in the peak of health don’t have many needs, but they hear how poorly they’re being treated by an expert at explaining how only they can fix the problem, any problem, every problem.

 

 

Young Men With Problems?

At the very least, be willing to vote.

Vote for a reflection of who you are, of who you want to be.

A strength of character is looking at the common good, looking beyond yourself, and acting on your best instincts.

 

Young man, are you listening to me?
I said, young man, what do you wanna be?
I said, young man, you can make real your dreams.
But you got to know this one thing!

No man does it all by himself.
I said, young man, put your pride on the shelf,
And just go there, to the Y.M.C.A.
I’m sure they can help you today.

Young man, I was once in your shoes.
I said, I was down and out with the blues.
I felt no man cared if I were alive.
I felt the whole world was so jive…

That’s when someone came up to me,
And said, “Young man, take a walk up the street.
There’s a place there called the ‘Y.M.C.A.’
They can start you back on your way.”

 

Chances are good that a thirty-year old who feels old will live another thirty or forty years.

Will you feel older and older until you can’t feel anything and all you want to do is lie down and die?

I’m sixty-nine. When I turned thirty I asked the older guys in the Portland State gym what to expect.

“You won’t feel as silly wearing a shirt and tie.”

That was it? Was that all there was?

Let’s say I didn’t ask around much and somehow made it past thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty.

You spent a lot of time as an adult as those younger years fade in the distance.

I spent my youth chasing after some kind of validation as a wrestler that took me to college, then the Army.

I also wanted validation for my brain, so I went to college after the Army.

I wanted to validate my state and found meaningful work with the Oregon Historical Society.

Biological validation? Got married and had kids.

Social validation? Stayed married.

Financial validation: I didn’t have a checking account or a car when I got married. I do now.

 

Who Are You 

By this chart young men include Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, Silents, and WWII with the last three not so young anymore.

We’re all passing through time, some sooner, some later, but it’s always the young who feel hard times the worst.

The rest of us know hard times also pass.

If the idea is having the best time possible, vote.

If the idea is helping others, vote.

Young men don’t always have the same perspective as old guys like yours truly.

When I lived in New York in the late-70’s I’d see buses and subways packed to the max and wonder who would miss them if they all disappeared.

I was single, mid-twenties, working in lower Manhattan with everyone I cared about on the other side of the country.

Who were all these strangers? First of all, they weren’t strangers to everyone.

They were neighbors, work buddies, drinking buddies, basketball buddies.

If you live anywhere long enough you find your people, your pals, your buddies.

If you live long enough, you learn to see the opposite.

Vote for your people, your pals, your buddies.

Vote for your future wife and kids.

Vote for the future of America, for clear skies and clean water.

All of this stuff grows more important with every year passed.

Don’t make plans to look back with regret, that happens on its own with or without plans.