Although the teenagers who are reading this paper will not be eligible to vote for a few more years, we have as much at stake as any adult regarding some of the issues about which our elected officials are making decisions. We are considered old enough to pay taxes - in fact, income tax forms are the only documents on which our signatures are legally binding - so shouldn't we have some say in the amount of taxes that we have to pay? Cuts in aid to schools hurt us, so why doesn't anybody ask for our opinion? Why do we have no voice?

It is unreasonable to expect the voting age to be lowered to fourteen or sixteen and there are many good reasons why it is not. But shouldn't our opinions be listened to? Elected officials pay the most attention to people who are registered to vote, but is it my fault that I started to think years before I legally become an adult? Isn't there some way in which we can be heard?n