Your Voice: Today’s youth, Tomorrow’s leaders changing the world

By Robert Blanton

The youth of today will be our lead­ers of tomor­row. It is under­stood that the habits and lessons learned in the for­ma­tive years will be instilled in their thoughts, actions, and deeds, now and for­ev­er. Knowing what influ­ences youth makes it imper­a­tive for today’s lead­ers, teach­ers, and par­ents to go all out to make pos­i­tive impres­sions and offer con­struc­tive opportunities.

Recognizing this, Winchester and Clark Countians need to take every occa­sion to be that pos­i­tive role mod­el and work to see that our youth are achiev­ers and become true lead­ers. Exposing youth to civic events and involve­ment, men­tor­ing them in vol­un­teer­ing, and offer­ing praise for a job well done will encour­age them to become inter­est­ed and involved.

Our lead­ers rec­og­nize what is nec­es­sary and are offer­ing civic oppor­tu­ni­ties. In recent years, the Winchester City Commission has orga­nized city gov­ern­ment day for fifth graders. This year, the Clark County Winchester Heritage Commission estab­lished a Frankfort field trip for sev­enth graders, and the Kentucky Association of Counties held an annu­al cal­en­dar art con­test (K‑8) to show and explain “Why I love my coun­ty.” Robert D. Campbell Junior High just announced that eighth graders will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take an edu­ca­tion­al trip to Washington, D.C.

Just recent­ly the Winchester Chamber of Commerce came onboard with the National Chamber of Commerce and the non-prof­it Civics Trust to pro­mote and encour­age all 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders to enter the National Civics Bee com­pe­ti­tion by writ­ing an essay on propos­ing ideas to improve our com­mu­ni­ty. This nation­wide event will improve their civics, writ­ing, and pub­lic speak­ing skills.

What is democ­ra­cy? What does a juror do? How do City, County, State and Federal gov­ern­ment oper­ate? Why vote? What is par­ti­san pol­i­tics? What are the dif­fer­ent branch­es of gov­ern­ment and what are their responsibilities?

Having the avail­able resources to answer these ques­tions and more while learn­ing in the process will empow­er youth to be informed, active cit­i­zens and con­tribute to our com­mu­ni­ty. We must always remem­ber that our democ­ra­cy depends on edu­cat­ed, informed, and engaged cit­i­zens. To ensure the con­tin­ued exis­tence of democ­ra­cy, we must pass along a civic com­mit­ment to the youth of today. As indi­vid­u­als or in groups and orga­ni­za­tions, we must take every oppor­tu­ni­ty to teach and show our youth about democ­ra­cy, there­by mak­ing Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky, and our nation a bet­ter place.

As Admiral William McRaven, a retired Navy seal told the 2014 University of Texas grad­u­at­ing class, “You can change the world.”  It all starts by chang­ing the lives of 10 peo­ple, then they do the same and so on and on. 

Go today and be that dif­fer­ence maker.