Why is it important?

I started a petition a short time ago.  The only reason I would actually go through the trouble of writing a petition is if there was nothing else out there like it.  The issue I bring up is not one being talked about by most people.  I would say that it isn't being talked about by anyone but I have no way to know that for sure.  The point is, no one is making an issue of it, so I did.  My petition is about lowering the age of candidacy in congress to 18 years of age.  

I go in depth about why this should happen and how I came to that conclusion using rationalization, reasoning and logic.  However, even after all the explanations, I have been getting a lot of questions of why?  Why is it important?  Will it really make a difference?  Why do I care?  When I first faced these questions I was somewhat confused because I thought in the petition I explained why it is important and why I care.  But I began to realize that the answers I had given in the petition were based on rational arguments of why age of candidacy should be lowered, but I did not clarifying why I personally want it to be.  

I am not going to go into detail of everything the petition says so if you haven't read it yet, you can follow this link to the page: http://www.change.org/petitions/united-states-congress-lower-the-minimum-age-for-candidacy

I recently began getting interested in politics.  There are so many injustices happening in our country but not much is changing.  Many issues are not getting heard the way they should be in congress.  I came to the conclusion that the reason nothing is happening is because most of our politicians are corrupt or they are afraid of change.  You can't force a politician to listen to you unless you have lots of money, and most of the people with lots of money are not looking for the same change that our country needs.  I wish we could voice our opinions better but how are we suppose to stand up to these billion dollar corporations.

Great strides have been made in the last couple years with multiple protests and activists popping up all over the place, and word is spreading, but not much change is happening.  Our politicians are going to continue to not care and ignore us as long as they can.  It is easy for them to ignore these issues when all other politicians, big corporations, and mainstream media are backing them up.  That is why I feel it is important to be able to vote for a candidate that we can relate with.  One that hasn't been corrupted by greed.  One that shares our opinions.  

I feel like the young adults of America are the majority of people shouting for change.  This could be for a couple reasons.  One, that they have not been corrupted yet; they have not fallen into success and been swept away by greed.  Another reason could be, because they are starting out their lives and don’t have to focus on feeding a family and just doing their daily work, they have more time to focus on and care about these issues.  There can also be connections to the amount and quality of information young adults receive compared to their older counterparts.  In colleges around the country, young adults are getting more and more exposure to different types people, ideas, and experiences.  This along with the access to the internet, could make younger individuals more aware of what is going on.  Most likely it is a combination of all of these.  

Now, this is not an attack on older adults.  There are plenty of them supporting ideas of change and wanting to see our country progress, but their numbers don't quite compare to the number of young adults rallying behind these ideas and becoming active.   

I wrote this petition because I feel like the best chance we have in getting our representatives to listen to the young adults of American and enact our message of change is by getting some of us in congress.  And the only way we can get into congress is if we are allowed to run.  

In a way, my petition is fighting for all the progressive issues that young adults want to bring up in congress.  It represents hope for correcting all the wrongs, hope for justice, hope for equality, and hope in our countries future.  So not only am I fighting to correct an injustice in our Constitution, but I am fighting for every voice not being heard in congress because young adults are not given the opportunity to vote for a representative that truly represents them.