Date Printed: 06/16/2009 JTS Box Number: IFES 76 Tab Number: 148 Document Title: Teenagers Promote the Vote Through Slick Music Video Document Date: 23-May-96 Document Country: United States Virqinia Document Language: English IFES ID: CE02561 Va.1 WEEKLY Teenagers Promote the Vote Through Slick Music Video Fairfax City, Washington-Lee High School in Arlington Increased Youth Suffrage Sought and Herndon High School in Fairfax Coullty talk to their peers about the importance of gomg to the polis. "One of our responsibilities is to tell those who are By Patricia Davis calling us the 'slackers' ... that we are st'rlOlls about our Washington Post Staff Writer future," Grace Tran, 18, a senior at FaIrfax, says on the Next month marks the 25th anniversary of the historic video. "We are for change." day when 18- to 20-year-olds won the right to vote. But The IS-minute video was produced by the nonprofit most don't even bother. group People for the American Way, which started its Since the 26th Amendment was ratified on June 30, First Vote Project to help iHlprove the youth vote. 1971, lowering the voting age to 18, the number of During the first presidential race in which young peo­ young people going to the polls generally has been de­ ple under the age of 21 could vote, in 1972, nearly 50 clining steadily. percent of those ages 18 to 2·\ went to the polis, accord· Now, some high school students from Northern Vir­ ing to the group. That sunk to ,'Ij) all-tinw low of about 35 ginia and the District are trying to reverse that trend percent in the 1988 race. through a hip, fast-paced new video called ''First Vote." In the 1992 presidential ete, tlon, abollt 43 percent of Some detail from the "First vote' video ••• In the video, being shown in classrooms across the young people voted, but il'~ 100 soon to tell if the slight 'I ' I I country, dozens of students from Fairfax High School in See VOTE, Page 2, Col. 1 . .• which uses MTV ·style pacing to convey It, message. Students who partiCipated In the video Include, from left In the front row, Carmen Zuniga, 17; Mike Mahaffey, 18; and Jllilan Waldren, 19. Standing are Johanna Velazquez, 18i Scott McOonald, 17; Grace Tran, 18i Farrah Fakir, 18i and Latessa Adams, 18. '_ ..._"._--- Communities Brighten Up for Olympic Torch Relay Progress By Michael D. Shear County and Prince William County on June 20 and 21 as it Planning for the eVt~lIts has taken months, with some of Washington Post Staff Writer travels to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Games. the Virginia communities forming task forces as early as Jan­ Although the flame will be in each of the communities for uary. Even so, last-t:iHllute changes in the ton:h's schedule On Fairfax When Carrie Wosicki received an e-mail message recently only a short period, the local governments are using the op­ have kept most of the organizers busy. telling her that the Arlington Public Works Department was portunity to team up with businesses, school groups and non­ "With all of the Olympic Committee'::; restrictions and all, planning to tear up the sidewalks along Wilson Boulevard in profit groups for daylong celebrations. Wosicki, advertising you need to be very flexible," said Prince William School Parkway Rosslyn during June, she jumped into action. manager for the American Gas Association, an Olympic spon­ Board Chairman Lun S. BeauchaIllp, th(· regional director "It's going to look so unsightly. We have to delay that pro­ sor, is on the Arlington committee planning the torch events. for United Way in Prince Willi,lnl ,J\ld a key plarmer for the By Ron Shaffer ject,' she told everyone she could find in the county govern­ In Arlington, there are four festivals plarmed for different county's celebrations "We have not been able to release the Washington Post Staff Writer exact route, so it"s bet'fl very difticult to do a lot of planning." ment, until she got the work delayed. "I said, 'We cannot parts of the county. Alexandria will have two. The torch is ear Dr. Gridlock: have the streets torn up when the torch comes through: " stopping only briefly in Fairfax, at Mount Vernon. And Organizer s (lfe keeping some details, including exactly Your column published on The torch is actually the torch. The Olympic Torch. Run­ Prince William plans a celebration when the torch stops at who will carry the torch at every place and time, close to the D June 15, 1995, had an ners are carrying it through ArIington, Alexandria, Fairfax Potomac Mills Mall and smaller events along U.S. Route 1. See TORCH, Page 3, Col. :J excellent map and write-up on the status of the Fairfax County J Parkway. Would you please consider 1 VIRGINIA NOTEBOOK giving us a more current reading on I, the state of this project, with map if 1 Federal Funds possible? i ERIC GOODWIN I Mount Vernon j GMU Rivals Happy to. This 35-miIe, $538 j To Help Restore million project is one of the most important ever in Trade Shots Northern Virginia, and Historic MiU certainly one of the By Peter Baker most expen­ and Robert O'Harrow Jr. sive. It will be a WaahinJtoo Post Staff Writers By Rajiv Chandrasekaran new avenue for Washington Post Staff Writer cross-county travel, or years they have differed relieving the interstate over the direction of George During the early 1800s, the four-story, highways and overcrowded FMason University-GMU red-brick mill in the village of Aldie was a secondary roads. "More than President George W. Johnson and bust1ing sort of place, unlike most of lou­ half the Fairfax County labor force Constance Bedell, a member of the doun County. lives and works in the county, and this university's governing board and a Wagons laden with corn or wheat regular­ road responds to the need for persistent critic. ly ambled in from farms in the Shenandoah intracounty travel," said Katharine D. They worked together in the early Valley. Giant stone wheels, powered by the Ichter, a senior county transportation 1980's, when Bedell was first on the nearby Little River, crushed the grain, and official. "It serves the county from the board. And they have clashed workers used conveyor belts and chutes to northern tip to the southern tip." repeatedly since Bedell returned to fill burlap bags. Later, a cart pulled by a four­ See GRIDLOCK, Page 6, CoL 1 the board in July after being mule team would haul the finished product to appointed by Gov. George Allen (R). BY tARRY MORRIS--THE WASHINGTON POST the port of Alexandria. Andrea Brown, of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, stands inside the Aldie mill. So it should not be a surprise that All that activity slowly ground to a halt the two faced each other down last earlier this century, when diesel engines re­ INSIDE week at Johnson's last Board of placed the old water wheels, trucks took H. Grayson, Northern Virginia director of The group also wants to set up a small Visitors meeting before he retires over for wagons and bigger factories finally the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the group June 30. museum next to the mill, with interactive Music: put the mill-which had switched to making that is trying to restore the mill. "Thin.gs displays and exhibits that highlight the area's The issue had to do with a request cattle feed-out of business in 1971. Alexandria Choral Society have been rather dormant here for the past history, Grayson said. 2 Bedell made last month to have a Now, the mill may whir again. school auditor provide financial couple of years ... but this award is going to <CH's representative of an era in American After spending 15 years trying to raise take us over the [mal hump." information about two student enough money to refurbish the building and history that's disappearing," she said. "This Crime Watch: activists who opposed her build a museum on the site, the preservation The foundation, which was given the mill mill, III its day, was a big deal." Police Reports 4 appointment. Although Bedell backed group that owns the mill last week received in 1981 by its private owners, wants to make Over the years, the group has raised about away from the request after critics nearly $400,000 in federal funding to com­ it operational once again, so that schoolchil­ $].5 million, almost entirely from private Bus Routes: See NOTEBOOK, Page 3, CoL 1 plete the work. dren and tourists can see how small factories sources, to begin the project, said Andrea "This is a big shot in the arm," said Leslie operated in bygone days, Grayson said. See MILL, Page 2, Col. 5 Service Changes in Fairfax 5 ,;.~ - I Va.2 TU\JR5DAY, MAy 23, 1996 41 44 THE WASHINGTON POST Students Add Energy MUSIC Historic Aldie Mill To Teen Voting Drive Alexandria Chorus May Operate Again VOTE, From Page 1 life todsy has pushed voting off many MILL, From Page 1 The mill was visited by President priority lists. James Monroe, who ground grain Brown, the foundation's project co· increase was a blip or a new trend, "A lot of kids feel it's a hassle," Is Poetry, Emotion there while living at his nearby Oak said Sandy Horwitt, First Vote Pm· said Latease Adams, 18, a senior at ordinator. They've used those funds Hill estate.