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It’s hard not to open your phone without seeing a headline somewhere shouting about some national or divisive topic: data centers, climate change, the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense.
Soon, voters will take to the polls and weigh in on those issues by casting their ballots in the November midterms. Everyone who’s over 18, a U.S. citizen and registered to vote can put their thumb on the scale, but for the roughly 333,000 under 18 in Philly and millions more nationwide, they’ll be without a vote until they’re of age.
At WHYY’s Youth Town Hall event Wednesday night, Billy Penn asked young attendees what national issues were on their minds ahead of the midterms and how they wanted to see them addressed.
International relations
It’s been over 200 days since the U.S. began its war with Iran, and young people gathered for Wednesday’s town hall said they thought it’d gone 200 days too long.
“I know each country has their own beliefs, but like we shouldn’t be going over trying to change that,” said 14-year-old Kamari Gaudin.
“I hope that the war in Iran, which was unconstitutional to begin with, is addressed as a main priority,” said 16-year-old Wahyes Islam. “I believe that we shouldn’t be engaged in a foreign conflict that we had no right to begin or to involve ourselves in, especially with gas prices going up.”
Islam was part of a panel of four students at the town hall event, where he and his peers spoke about youth civic engagement. Last summer Islam said he was invited to a Democratic Party event where he spoke with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker. One day, Islam said he hopes to become mayor.
Public investment
“We need safer cities, more things for teenagers to do and stricter laws on gun violence because now it feels like streets aren’t safe,” said 16-year-old Aaron Paige Douglas. “Like you can’t just walk around without worrying about something bad happening to you.”
Douglas said she viewed elected officials as “kind of lazy” and hoped whoever replaced them would invest more in nonprofit groups that could provide services to younger people. She attributed the recent “teen takeover” trend where young people congregate en masse in public areas to the lack of third spaces for teens.
“We can’t do anything. We can’t go to the malls. There’s always curfews, or they’re kicking us out. We can’t go to the movies because we have to bring a parent. We can’t go to stores, or they think we’re stealing, so they kick us out,” said Douglas. “It’s nothing that we can do. So the only thing we can do is gather in public.”
AI and environment
Hanging around a cotton candy stand before the evening’s panels started were 16-year-olds Yena Su and Winni Jiang. The two took a break from their cotton candy to humor me and answer questions about the country’s greatest threats.
“I think definitely AI and how future employment would be affected by it is an issue,” said Jiang. “On the note of AI, I would also say environmental issues, since we all know how AI might be harmful for the environment.”
Jiang said she hoped to work in research one day and worried AI might take that opportunity from her. Su, a hopeful accountant, said she shared the concern.
“I would like to see politicians put limitations on how far AI can be used in the decision-making process,” Su said.
