Off The Publisher’s Desk – 4-24-2019
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I question giving 16-year-olds the right to vote
I have to question the leaders in the Democratic Party that want to lower the voting age to sixteen. I tried to remember what I was thinking about when I was sixteen. I think it was V-8 engines and smoking tires.
I remember that we were influenced greatly by our peers and teachers and other adults that we had an association with. I am sure that at sixteen, if one of my teachers suggested that I vote for someone, that I probably would have done that except, I surely would have done what my parents suggested.
I remember that back in 1971 when the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to eighteen, I thought it was great.
For more than fifty-years we received the St. Paul newspaper, daily on our door step in the morning and the Eau Claire newspaper on our door step in the afternoon. But, Eau Claire stopped delivering in St. Croix County and the price of home delivery of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, seven days a week rose to over $800 a year. So we got a deal, where they delivered it on Thursdays and Sundays. Those two issues also carry the many advertising flyers, so that is why it was a deal. But we do get the Pioneer Press online and Paula pointed out a story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press of last Friday, April 19th headlined, “Teen gets prison sentence for stabbing peer in dispute.”
So with my eight-year-old grandson in tow, we went to the local Cenex C-store to buy a printed copy of that edition. Zach quickly pointed out to me that one of the pictures on the front page was President Trump.
But back to the story that I wanted to read in which a 19-year-old female was sentenced to 84 months in prison for stabbing a 17-year-old female. Nyla Murrell-French was sentenced on one count of first-degree assault after stabbing the 17-year old during a fight on St. Paul’s East Side.
Murrell-French’s attorney, Christopher Anderson, acknowledge his client’s violent conduct that day was inexcusable, he insisted it was an isolated incident fueled by the “impulsivity” and underdeveloped brain of a teenager with her own traumatic past.
According to the story in the Pioneer Press, Anderson told the judge, “The consequences of sending her to prison would so greatly outweigh the benefit to society. We are frankly asking the court to give her a chance.”
Ramsey County District Judge Sara Grewing said she understood the role a teenager’s brain can play in reckless behavior. The judge reminded Murrell-French that she had warned her at her plea hearing that she needed to be on her best behavior if she wanted to avoid prison time at sentencing, but the young woman chose to do otherwise.
The Judge said that she could possibly overlook one or two new offenses, but nine new charges, the judge could not overlook.
Now, I don’t want to imply that all teenagers, or any as a matter of fact, have the violent temper that was displayed in the above story. But I am questioning the idea of lowering the voting age to sixteen.
I watched Bernie Sanders the other night on Fox News and he wants to give everyone standing on American soil the right to vote including those in prison. I only mention Sanders, because right now he is leading in the polls as the next Democratic Presidential candidate.
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton