This is my first blog post in far too long. In fact, I’ve been depressingly absent from NYRA for quite a while. Two things are bringing me back here. The first is that I suddenly find myself with a rare free few hours. The second is, oddly enough, my 21st birthday, which was almost two…
A couple months ago, I was explaining the Mosquito device to someone, about how we had the Gallery Place one taken down and why. But he didn’t seem sold on the idea of, you know, allowing teens to assemble freely in public, citing the recent case where a group of teens created a rowdy flash…
One of our bigger campaigns here at NYRA is lowering the drinking age, the issue about which we’ve probably gotten the most press, as well as the most vocal opposition, whether angry opinion articles or pro-21 forum trolls or that time Alex Koroknay-Palicz was tabling and someone came up and screamed at him after merely…
NYRA President Jeffrey Nadel often says “The worst thing you can do is forget what it is like to be young.” Very true. After all, how can you effectively defend youth rights, or do much of anything involving youth for that matter, without any kind of memory or knowledge of the lives of the people…
What an awesome speech, Erica is a rock star. The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010 Here I stand There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the…
Hyundai and major network executives felt no issue in authorizing the creation and broadcast of several commercials that depict scenes such as a messy and unorganized bedroom to the tune of The Sound of Music’s “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” the point of which is this new wave of particularly troublesome teenage drivers will need especially…
Much has been made of the recent child obesity epidemic sweeping our nation. Turn on the news once a week and you’ll see at least ten stories about how kids aren’t getting enough exercise and eating too much bad food. All of these stories place the blame on the kids and to a much lesser…
There’s one thing we’re frequently told and ordered throughout our lives: kids and “swear words” should not mix ever. Kids should neither hear them nor say them. If a form of entertainment uses any of these “swear words”, depending on the specific words, kids should be forbidden from it. Oh, and the unlucky kid who…
Katrina raised a very interesting question on the NYRA forum. One that everyone should consider and helps deepen our understanding of youth rights and the fight against ageism. Her question: When I think back about ten years or so, I can’t help thinking that, of course, I have had more experiences, learned so much more,…
While intermittently glancing up at the Academy Awards show last night, noticed an immediately annoying commercial. The scene panned around a very messy bedroom, while the song “16 Going on 17” from the Sound of Music was playing. Alright, so right off the bat, we’re being told 16-year-olds are irresponsible messy idiots, and already indignant,…
