In the 1980s, states decided to raise their drinking age to 21. Surprisingly, it wasn’t because of safety, public pressure, or even their own emotions. The main reason states raised the drinking age was because they risked losing 10% of their federal highway funds to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDAA). The Supreme Court…
There’s a very exciting opportunity coming up for us next week. On Tuesday, November 28th after 8 AM, the Gates Foundation is teaming up with Facebook to match funds to non-profits up to $50,000 for each non-profit. We also have matching funds from an anonymous donor, which means that any donation we receive through Facebook…
Jeremy Tuthill and Julia Sharapi of Greenbelt’s Youth Advisory Committee campaign to lower the voting age. In last week’s elections, the voters of Greenbelt, MD voted 53% in support of lowering the voting age to 16 in local elections. This non-binding referendum was the first time that voters in the US have chosen to lower…
NYRA’s current website was redesigned in 2011 and while it looked great for the time, it is now dated in both style and function. The current site doesn’t load smoothly, isn’t mobile friendly and hasn’t kept up with modern design standards. So NYRA is now working on a brand new website, and we need your…
In Massachusetts, two best friends made headway in the push to lower the voting age. Aaron Nelson and Max Carr passed articles in their hometowns of Ashfield and Shelburne, to lower the voting age to 16 for local elections. Carr has made a website explaining how lowering the voting age works. Their House of Representatives…
When I talk to people about lowering the voting age to 16 or lowering the drinking age to 18 they often say “Why the rush? Two or three years isn’t so long to wait.” Or they will respond, dismissively with, “You young people are always in such a hurry, just be patient, you’ll be an…
I recently found a secondhand book called, The Manager’s Pocket Guide to Generation X, by Bruce Tulgan. The publication date was 1997 — not surprising, as the cover looked like a screenshot from one of the Health videos I watched in middle school. Much of the book deals with misconceptions about Gen X, which at that…
NYRA Chapter leader Bryce Hall spoke out against extending the juvenile curfew law in his home town of Fort Worth, Texas last Tuesday. He and other NYRA members attended the city’s Council meeting, where Bryce testified on the negative impact of curfew laws in his community. Unfortunately, the council decided to extend the curfew law…
While the shocking upset for president is at the forefront of media coverage right now, there were several youth rights issues on the ballot yesterday that should not be forgotten. NYRA is very pleased to announce victories on a ballot measure in Berkeley, California to lower the voting age and a non-binding ballot question to…
We have a historic opportunity to lower the voting age in San Francisco, and we NEED YOUR HELP! No matter your age, no matter where you live, you can help make calls to San Francisco voters. And this is a critical moment. A recent poll put support for lowering the voting age at 48%. We…
