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My Parents Worked Hard for the Privilege to Vote, Others Should, Too
Youth commentary
By Emily Lee, Pacific News Service
SAN FRANCISCO-September 16, 2004-Not everybody in this country gets
to vote. California law says: "[Only] a United States citizen, 18 years
of age and resident of this state, may vote." But is that fair?
Recently, San Francisco City Supervisor Matt Gonzalez introduced an
initiative that would allow non-citizen parents who have kids in public
schools to vote for school board members. Personally, I don't think
that's fair either.
Right now non-citizens, or immigrants, have children in public schools
and yet don't have a say in the school board elections. I agree that
non-citizens should participate in what happens in schools. But I also
believe that we can't let them vote, because if we do, they would want
to be able to vote in all the other elections affecting them and their
kids, which is almost all of the elections. If we let non-citizens vote,
it would be extremely unfair to the people who have worked hard to
become U.S. citizens.
My parents both worked very hard to become citizens. My mom became one
as soon as she could because she wanted the benefits of citizenship,
like certain services from the government. My mother had absolutely
nothing -- no money, no food, nothing. Aid from the government was
crucial to her.
My dad became a citizen about a year ago, even though he had been here
for about 30 years. He didn't want to be a citizen for all those years
because he didn't want all the responsibilities that came with
citizenship -- like jury duty. I think this is a common reason many
immigrants don't become citizens. Also, he doesn't know any English --
he can't speak it, read it, write it; he can't even ask someone, "How
are you?"
But my dad became a citizen last year because he broke his leg and now
he can't work any more; so he wanted to qualify for disability. Also,
after being here for 30 years he qualified to take the citizenship exam
in Chinese. My parents worked hard to gain the benefits of citizenship
and it would be unfair to them to let non-citizens vote.
Letting non-citizens vote would also mess up the entire citizenship
system. It would make it pointless, because the citizenship system is in
place to teach new Americans how and why democracy works. Because voting
is a privilege, it should inspire non-citizens to work harder to obtain
the privilege to vote.
So, non-citizens should understand that if
they want to vote for the school board, they should work hard to pass
the citizenship exam. I think many non-citizens want all the benefits of
citizenship but don't want the extra responsibilities, just like my dad
used to think.
Supervisor Gonzalez said it takes too long for immigrant parents to
become U.S. citizens. "Because of government red tape and a long
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) backlog, immigrant parents
must wait an average of ten years to become citizen," he said. By the
time they get sworn in their kids might be out of public school. That's
why he thinks we should support his ballot measure. Sharon Rummery,
immigration spokesperson, said it now takes only 8 months after
application for someone who has been a permanent resident for 5 years to
become a U.S. citizen.
Gonzalez and Rummery are both exaggerating. Gonzalez exaggerates the
amount of time it takes to become a citizen so we'll support the ballot
measure. Rummery is exaggerating so it won't make her office look bad.
It takes a lot longer than 8 months to become a citizen, but it doesn't
take 10 years. In reality, it's somewhere in between those two numbers.
Instead of letting non-citizen parents vote, we can find another way.
For example, we can let them say what they think about the public school
system and make sure the people who can vote are there to listen.
Non-citizen parents should still do their best to be involved, and then
they would feel better about not being able to vote. If we really have
to, we could let non-citizens vote in the school board elections, but
their votes shouldn't count as much as those of citizens.
Gonzalez says non-citizens have kids in public schools, so they should
have a say about what happens in the school system. But if that's the
case, we should let let kids vote in the school board elections, too.
Most parents -- like mine -- don't have a clue as to what's happening in
the schools. We should let the kids vote because they're in the school
system and they know what's wrong with it. Most parents don't know
anything about the schools -- they aren't there every day. So what's the
point in letting them vote?
This issue is really about laws and not bending them. I believe in the
privilege of voting and think that nothing should bend those rules.
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Other Readings of Interest @ AAV
-
National Poll on Asian American Voters Shows Large Undecideds,
Record Interest
By APIAVote.org
APAs favor Kerry, but 20% undecided; jobs,
economy top concerns; most say 2004 may be "most important election
of my lifetime"
-
Are You Ready to Rock the Vote House?
By AAV Staff
APIAVote.org wants you to throw a house party on
Sunday, September 26 in nationwide teleconference with candidates,
voter reg. drive
-
New Generation of Asian Americans Makes Political Waves
By Deborah Kong, PNS
Though numerous, California's APAs have a reputation for shying from
mainstream politics. Some Bay Area candidates are trying to change
that.
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But I Don’t Want to be Political...
By Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, AAV Contributing
Editor
A last push to go to the polls for those
of us who really don't want to. (Originally
ran slightly different form on Election
Day 2000 as part of IMDiversity's month-long special content and
discussion section, Bush-Gore Diversity Q&A Special. In light of
that year's astonishing lessons re-emphasizing the importance of the
individual vote and citizen participation, the editors resurrected
the article for inclusion in the "APAthy to Action: Elections 2002"
series.)
Emily Lee, 16, a contributing writer for YO! Youth
Outlook Magazine, a PNS publication. |
