|
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sickles.
DELEGATE SICKLES: Mr. Chairman
and members of the Committee, I feel like
the old Chinese proverb that says, "In his
decision, the judge with seven reasons usu-
ally gives only one", so I am not going to
bore you with many reasons for the posi-
tion I personally have held for a long time,
but perhaps pick out one that has not been
touched yet, one that I think if there are
any left in the house who have not made
their mind up, they might think about for
just a minute.
Some few years ago I became involved
in the national problem of juvenile delin-
quency. You might wonder why I would
bring up juvenile delinquency when I am
going to be in favor of lowering the voting
age because you should normally assume I
would then be talking about bad children
and there would be a good argument
against lowering the voting age.
Well, as I studied this part of the prob-
lem with the so-called experts in the field,
that body of our society that spends all its
time studying those in that age group,
without any exception, their conclusion was
that those from about seventeen and a half
up, as a class, certainly had the maturity
to make the value judgment necessary to
cast a vote in an election.
We, of course, are relying upon our
personal experiences. I could add to that,
that in my travels throughout the State of
Maryland I have been impressed by the
judgment shown by youngsters in the
State, and I have suggested many times to
those who were eighteen or nineteen who
thought maybe they were not ready to vote
yet, that they might expect they are going
to become smarter. They may learn more
facts, but this does not necessarily add
anything to their basic wisdom because I
think the educators in this hall will testify
to the fact that the younger a child is edu-
cated and trained — at least this is the
current theory — the better off we are in
terms of instilling a basic education in him.
As a result, the Head Start program on
the national level tried to lift the young-
sters at an early age even before pre-school
age and the whole school system is based on
the concept that the youngster and his
talents are nurtured and his character is
developed at a very early age.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-quar-
ter minute, Delegate Sickles.
DELEGATE SICKLES: Let us hope we
are not being tempered by something as I
|
was. I was recently given a copy of a
document known as "Watch for these Sig-
nals of Creeping Middle-Age". It goes
through a list. One signal which I noticed,
which hit me right between the eyes, was
that it occurs to you that the campaigns
to elect younger men to public office may
have gotten out of hand lately. I think
maybe there is a touch of that with re-
spect to those of us who have passed the
magic age of twenty-one.
Let me suggest to you it would be good
for our society to take those who have the
maturity and judgment necessary to vote,
and let them vote, and let them participate
in decisions we are making.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: Mr. Chairman, I
would like to yield three minutes to Dele-
gate Borom.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Borom.
DELEGATE BOROM: Mr. Chairman
and fellow delegates, I am sorry Delegate
Dulany has left. He made reference some
time ago to fermentation when we talked
about the younger voters. I would say to
him and to the delegates here that without
fermentation there is no wine. I am afraid
what we are trying to do here if we vote
against lowering the voting ag-e is remov-
ing the fermentation, and we will have a
neutral liquid or bland liquid. 1 would say
this.
Delegate Schloeder and other educators
made reference to their experience with
students. I have also had experience with
students, particularly student governments,
whether they be leaders or followers in
student government. The one thing they
do not want is a Mickey Mouse operation.
They do not want to be involved in some-
thing that is artificial. Therefore, I submit
that any figures or statistics they offer in
reference to the students active in student
government are completely invalid.
Those less than twenty-one years old in
our State are interested in being in the
middle of something that is vital and alive;
our political system, our state g-overnment,
is a live, vital instrument, and the young-
sters want to be involved.
For those of you who fear that permit-
ting young people to be involved in politics
is likely to lead to the situation in Italy
and some other countries, I do not think
you have anything to fear. I think the fear
here is that if we continue not permitting
youngsters under twenty-one to be involved
vitally in our state g-overnment, we enhance
|
