Young people can transform America — if we vote

New York City’s annual Civics Week initiative, enrolled a record number of students this year. High School senior Munjie Murci described the importance of the event. Photo courtesy of the Mayor’s Office

By Munjie Murci

Special to the Eagle

Special to the Eagle  As part of the second annual Civics Week Student Voter Registration Drive, run by the Mayor’s Office and the NYC Department of Education, I joined thousands of students across high school classrooms in the City on Monday, March 2nd and registered to vote for the first time at William Cullen Bryant High School in Long Island City. 

Civics Week is part of the Department of Education’s Civics for All initiative, which teaches students about the foundations of American government and the democratic process. Students at my school and others across the city have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities, including youth voter registration drives, participatory budgeting, public speaking competitions, and town halls on issues that matter to them and their communities.

Listening to NYC Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives J. Phillip Thompson, and fellow alumnus Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer describe the hard-won battles to remove barriers to the franchise so all eligible citizens can exercise their right to vote, I asked myself: What does democracy mean to me? 

I lived in Sudan, my parents’ homeland, at a time when the country was wracked by civil war and rife with instability and violence. I vividly remember as a quintessentially spirited fifth grader drawing lessons from the injustices the people around me faced and how their voices went unheard. There are many immigrants, just like my parents, who flee countries where they have no voice.

However, as governments around the world seek to trammel the people’s rights to freedom, safety, and security, the universal promise of democracy’s most basic tenet endures: the people shall have a say. The people shall participate in the systems that influence their lives. By that measure, my generation’s thirst for voice is unquenchable. 

Young people are taking action, advocating for change and coming up with solutions to the seemingly intractable issues of our time: skyrocketing inequality, accelerated climate catastrophe and the rollback of reproductive, immigrant and voting rights. 

I believe that young people can transform America. Unfortunately, many young people are not voting. Demoralized by political events that sow distrust among communities and undermine belief in government, young voters lose faith in elections, civic engagement erodes, and disengagement sets in. From my experience, young people don’t vote. That is irrefutably true, especially in New York, and I hope to change that. But older generations instill the idea that we are also uninformed about contemporary issues affecting our country. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every day at William Cullen Bryant, my friends and I talk about important Supreme Court cases, the policy proposals of elected officials, and even our frustration with the MTA!

What does democracy mean to me? As a young man of color in the United States, I value my unique privilege in our democracy to effect change and hope my peers will join me during Civics Week in registering to vote. Democracy means the power of youth to shape our future and define the kind of world we want to live in.  

Munjie Murci is a senior at William Cullen Bryant High School who registered to vote during the city’s Civics Week Student Voter Registration Drive