okay
okay well um
do you believe only fifty percent of the people actually vote
i think it's somewhere really close to that cause i think a lot of people believe that their one little vote is not going to make that much difference
and they really don't listen to any of the issues anymore because they feel like so many of the politicians are like crooked you know and so they figure why go out and vote you know they're going to do what they want to do they're corrupt anyway
well
and i think one of the good ways of solving that is to like everybody likes to come to a party so have a voting party and uh you know like in communities
and have the issues there and then everybody go vote together and then maybe come back over and have brunch or something i mean that's the only thing that i can figure out because
i've heard so many people say well i'm not going on voting on that one you know i i'm going to go fishing today or it won't make any difference if if i don't vote and i think it does we vote every time
well it uh there's no question it does make a difference uh so far as having a party and then all voting uh when you have different precincts you would have to have a party in every precinct
right
because people have to vote in different area
and uh not everyone votes at the same place uh i personally think that we need to do more along the education lines in the schools to children from the little ones on up
with the idea of the the value of voting and the purpose of voting and that one vote does make a difference but
right and maybe maybe let them have some mock i mean uh you know elections and stuff and vote for different people in their classes and start really young that's a real good idea
absolutely
absolutely
and and they are doing that in a number of schools however probably not enough of them uh country wide but it's going to take at least a whole generation of people uh to
get across the idea of voting uh just like it's taking a whole generation of people to finally uh realize the harmfulness of drugs
right
and uh hopefully to uh now with the many programs throughout the country on how to resist taking drugs how to say no to it and what have you that uh perhaps we'll finally get the youth
weaned off of it but uh
i know i i spent thirty four years in education here in the Dayton area and in nineteen fifty one the police were telling us about the drug dealers outside the school
and how they were just giving away their marijuana giving away their heroin and what have you to get them started
um
and now that was in fifty one that's forty years ago that it was already a problem so it's now uh
God
to the forefront and people are finally taking some action against it and to think we've we've neglected the value of voting
right
and uh and what it really means to vote and we also don't make the uh the issues perhaps in language that people fully understand them
yeah well i don't know how it is up there but down here
Louisiana has a bad reputation for their politicians and all i mean i'm sure you heard about some of ours and um people are just i mean it's like they're turned off on voting
um-hum sure right
and that's the reason i said maybe if you had something like a block party okay we're going to have a block party everybody's going to get together we're going to discuss the different issues and stuff and then we're going to go and vote you know we're going to go vote like
um-hum
maybe they could give something like uh the top neighborhood if you had a hundred percent in your neighborhood or something like that you know i mean it doesn't have to be it could be like a a sign that they would put down at the end of your block
uh-huh
you know or anything like that but
it it's really bad here i mean to me it is it seems like people just don't care anymore they say huh well it don't make any difference you know one crook is as good as the other one and they don't bother to listen to what any of them have to say
yeah
right
and um i know my husband now we go vote every time i don't care how
small the ballot is i mean if there's one thing if there's one issue because the way i feel is if i don't vote then i don't have any reason to gripe
uh-huh right
to complain about it right right
right and i hear so many people saying well i wish this would change i wish that and you know but they didn't go vote
that's right
and uh maybe if they like you said if they would start when little kids and start letting them vote and learn how to vote and all
that's right
then uh and the importance of it because okay if you don't vote for your friend over here well your friend's not going to have a chance
that is
he needs your vote just like he needs everybody elses you know maybe if they were brought up that a way like you said it would
because i know here uh until you get into high school now then they had the voting machines and you voted for like cheerleaders and different things like that but they should start that a lot earlier
yes uh-huh
yeah i it's the same way with everything in education though it should begin and
right down in the first grade uh and your very best teachers in my estimation should be first second or third grade so that the children
develop good learning patterns and have some success and want to go on learning and continue learning uh and not wait until they're in high school and then it's too late to try to change them around at that point
right
yeah
but uh everything should be started on the lower levels and uh certainly if the youngsters had that opportunity that
you know they they understood that the principles of the country were established so that everyone would have a say and everyone would have a vote
and what that vote meant and uh but it but you're right from the standpoint that people do have a negative attitude towards politicians
right
and perhaps it's because our campaigns have become so terribly expensive to run uh that only the most wealthy can do so
right
and they're not always the best person for the job but they have the money to be able to do it so uh so that there are a lot of problems along that line also and perhaps the government
definitely
you know a good i idea for the young kids like that too is to have like a
a mock one and okay this this candidate tells you some things that are going to happen and this candidate tells you some things okay then this percentage of the
sure
right
voters i mean the kids in that class they are not going to let them vote this time but they have to do whatever these people whichever one the other people elect do if they did something like that and started kids out real young and showed them
uh-huh
okay now you're not going to get to vote but you're going to have to do what that person says they would understand probably by the time they were in high school they'd be ready to vote
yes
right that's right and i think you know that's an excellent idea they for them to realize that that their going to have to do what someone else says even though they didn't vote for it
and that maybe maybe to think twice about voting now some people object during primaries having to declare a party
yeah
right
whether Republican or Democrat and you do that in the primary uh and i don't know that uh a lot of people vote in primaries for that very reason
uh-huh
uh they can declare anything they want and they can actually rig it if they really wanted to vote Republican they could go in the primary and say they were voting Democrat and then stack the ballot
for someone that perhaps the Republican could beat but uh
it's uh it's just a sad situation and uh i do think more needs to be done along that line to help to uh
teach the people uh uh everyone uh more about what is going on with voting and with non voting
so that uh we can make some start making some more intelligent decisions and it's going to take these young you know it's going to take the uh
yeah
i think that sounds great
a whole generation of my feeling uh before that's going to be accomplished that's right
well you know they'd have to start when they're real young i mean you know it would have to be a child that is just coming in the school
because i well i'll tell you another thing too now whenever
the first time i voted i never voted in high school because there was never anyone that showed us how to use the voting machines now this sounds dumb but i did not know how to use those voting machines
uh-huh
and nobody ever showed us or anything so i didn't vote because
anybody that went in there and they asked a question all the other kids laughed at them they thought that was funny oh she don't even know how
yeah
right uh-huh
so there wasn't any way i was going to go in there and vote and it took me i mean it took such courage you wouldn't believe to go vote the first time because i was waiting for somebody to laugh at me because i didn't know how to work the machines
and
sure
right well sure it is
now that's bad and i mean i was out of school i was a married person and um
uh-huh
i didn't know how to work the machine you know and it really scared me really bad because i thought all these people are going to laugh at me because i don't know how to work this machine where if they'd if they'd had a class or something or just a short
well just the just the opportunity to try the voting machines yeah
time you know that that okay this is the way
right it's this is the way it's going to be and my son was exactly the same way that i was and i didn't realize it until uh his senior year
i said asked him something about well did you who did you vote for for uh cheerleader and he said oh i didn't go vote he said uh there's no way i'm getting in that machine well then i realized it so when we went and voted the next time i asked
the uh lady i said i want my son to come in with me
and she said well uh why you know he'll have to come back out i said because i want him to know how to use one of these and i said i won't turn any of the buttons down but i want to show him how to use it so that he'll be able to vote
right
yes uh-huh
and uh so he went in and now he's a registered voter but he would not vote before that
good
yeah
and i mean i think that's bad you know here i was and and even of course there's a lot of years between the two of us but even with that many years between the
sure it is absolutely
