The United States Equalitarian Party (USEP) believes one of the principal reasons American youth encounter challenges successfully assimilating into society is because they have no clear indicator of when they become adults. The USEP wants to give them one.
The lack of a defined movement from childhood to adulthood in America is amazing. If you realize all across the globe — even in the most primitive of tribes, young men and women are provided some sort of ceremony or rite of passage which marks their departure from childhood into adulthood. With no clear definable moment in their life marking that transition in the U.S, it is no wonder our nation’s youth face confusion, rebel, or fail to properly exercise the rights and responsibilities tied to the title of adult.
In America, a teenager as young as fourteen can get a driver’s license. In some states, with parental approval; they can marry. In others, they can be sentenced as adults and serve time in prison. At sixteen, a young man or woman can get their driver’s license and be incarcerated for the rest of their life. At eighteen, young men and women can vote. Given the right to elect government officials or run for office, they are able to determine the direction of our country.
At eighteen, these same individuals can voluntarily join their country’s military. They can die protecting the rights of their fellow Americans. In some states, at eighteen, these young adults can face the death penalty for capital crimes. Yet these same individuals, able to determine the direction of their country’s political direction, able to spend the rest of their lives behind bars, able to die in prison or on battlefields across the globe, are unable to purchase a beer or bottle of wine.
Even at the age of twenty-one, when these young adults can finally purchase liquor to celebrate their achievements, there is still nothing telling them they have finally reached adulthood.
The USEP believes it is crucial to a young adult’s development and assimilation into society that they be allowed to make their own personal decisions regarding the direction of their life. The alternative of course is letting the government make them for them. Allowing state or federal governments make decision for our youth robs them of the chance to prove their ability to do so. Young Americans must learn how to become and behave as adults at the right time in their lives.
The USEP believes in establishing a leveled age of majority / adulthood. While the exact age might be determined by individual states, the expected range would be expected to range from 18–21. A Federal limit would be capped at 21. The USEP believes the adoption of the title “adult” should be adopted with a solemnity that recognizes the gravity of responsibility the individual is adopting.
The party recommends individuals reaching adulthood attend a public ceremony as soon as possible after reaching the state’s established age of majority. These new adult citizens would be expected to publicly attest to their full understanding of the rights and responsibilities they are about to assume. Family members would be encouraged to attend these ceremonies and states would be expected to provide certification of the act in the form of adult identification.
From that day on, our new adult citizens would be recognized as legally able to marry, join the military / civil services, and vote the way of their conscience. If convicted of a capital offense, they would face the full justice of the law and if called for in the state of their residence, face execution for capital crimes. They would fully assume the role of an adult in society and be awarded all privileges and responsibilities afforded that title.
Want to lean more? Want to become an Equalitarian? Want to know how to help our efforts? Visit the USEP website at: www.usep.net