I have always found myself interested in my community; locally, nationally, and globally. I've been fairly active in different issues such as the war on Iraq, the up and coming elections, and the like.
Recently, I have been trying to lower the local voting age to sixteen or so (I actually stumbled onto these boards while looking into this topic). I tried talking about it with my parents and some of my friends, and have noticed most people really just don't give a damn.
This is my first post, but it seems like people on these boards are fairly politically active, so I was curious as to whether any of you have experience with this sort of apathy or advice on how to deal with it?

Apathy is a raging problem in today's teens. In my school, some of the kids only care about what they care about and ***** the rest. It can just be annoying sometimes or worse. (I don't mean to change the topic, but...) Drugs/Alcohol aren't helping. I live in a town of maybe 200 people in North Dakota and our school consolidates with other small towns. I have known and had as classmates people who do drugs. Just this year I found that people in my class drink. Those people who do either tend to be the ones who are the most aPATHETIC and lazy.

I mostly deal with apathetic people by looking on them with contempt. Probably not the best way, but I figure it's their problem if they don't care.

Personally, I don't believe in lowering the voting age to sixteen. But, I do believie in striving for your goals and dreams. So, if your dream is to vote at age sixteen, then bring it on!
Evy
P.S. Advice- try talking to teenagers about stuff that they would care more about, like things that could affect our world in the long run istead of just talking about who the next president is and stuff like that. It's important to talk about who the next president and things like that, so relate these subjects to a teenager's world.

Make it personal, is the only advice I can give. If you can show people how something really affects THEM, they're more likely to care. Try to tie it in with something they're involved in or something they've been through. Best of luck. Love, Jen.

I'm fairly apathetic, because if there's nothing you can do about something, why bother caring? It's great that you're active in your community, so don't let other people get you down. Just keep doing your thing, and maybe more adults wil start to care if they realize that you do.