From “Lost Boy” to Delegate

CaLRDFOUMAIED9uThe Iowa Caucuses provided us with profound insights into our democratic process and the importance of civic engagement. Many of us marveled at having front row seats to “democracy in action” and caucus night was heralded as a sacred ritual in which we would celebrate our fellow citizens’ right to vote. But we all also knew the complicated history of voting rights in our nation.

In order to help the students understand the importance and larger context of what they were about to witness – after all, it’s rare to witness actual voting since Americans typically use a secret ballot – we designed a powerful,  interactive exercise on the evolution of voting rights in the United States.  Civil rights historian Daniel McGuire’s lesson emphasized that the right to vote was not a birth right for many groups (non-landowning men, women, African Americans)  and that citizens must cherish and protect this painfully acquired right. Our main point was that both in the context of US history and world history, voting rights, free speech, and a peaceful political process are not the norm and must never be taken for granted. Our students’ strong grasp of the civil rights movement (from their studies in the fifth grade at Carlthorp School), as well as a special and unanticipated encounter that evening, helped underscore this point.

At the Jordan Creek School caucus that KidUnity attended, we watched voters separate themselves in the room based on which candidate they supported. At the conclusion of this sorting and counting process, individuals from the two sides – Clinton and Sanders – were then selected to represent their candidates as delegates at Iowa’s state convention.

One man who stepped forward to be chosen as a delegate had a remarkable story. He introduced himself to his fellow caucus attendees as one of the “lost boys” from Sudan.  He explained that many of his friends had been killed by civil war, disease, and famine, that he had been separated from his family for twenty-three years, and that he had been forced to join an army at the age of thirteen. Now he was a father of a second grader, a student of environmental science, and an American citizen. That night – before our eyes – he became a delegate for Bernie Sanders.

Of all of the remarkable people we encountered on this trip, this man had the most powerful impact on me.

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