‘Democracy Day’ gets Silverado students fired up for election day

Lisa Sciortino

Thursday, March 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

In November, Matt Terlato will step into a voting booth for the first time to cast his ballot in the presidential election.

Participating in the political process is a duty the Silverado High junior takes seriously.

After all, "I could be the tie-breaker, you never know. It could all come down to ... an 18-year-old in high school in Vegas," he says.

In any case, Matt says he'd like to see big changes on Capitol Hill this election year. But he's not so sure his fellow voters feel the same.

"They want Bob Dole because he's used to the old system and he knows how to run the government, so he won't bring as much change," he says. "I'd like to see a female or an African-American" elected president. "It would be different."

Matt's schoolmates shared similar sentiments during Silverado's recent "Democracy Day" festivities.

The event, orchestrated by social studies and government teacher Denice Cardwell, brought students and local government and business officials together for a day of "hobnobbing."

"The purpose," Cardwell says, "was to make sure that the kids would take an interest and be informed of who's involved in politics and business" and show them "that these people are accessible."

Guest speakers included former state Sen. Hal Smith, state Sen. Bob Coffin and Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, whose speech highlighted local projects he's had a hand in.

"I think it's really important for our community and our whole society that we get young people more involved in the political process and taking part in democracy in general," Woodbury says.

Though most will be first-time voters this fall, the teens' greenness hasn't stopped them from forming strong opinions about the state of the union.

Junior Maria Utley doesn't mind paying taxes; she just wants to know how her dollars are being spent.

"We don't really know where it goes to," she says. "I don't think that they fairly put our money where we would all like it to be."

On the other hand, senior Marc Olsen doesn't care where the cash goes as long as it stays in the States. "We keep giving money to all of these other countries, and we've got a bigger debt than most of them do."

Also, he says, the government should stop sending troops into warring nations. "It's none of our business. We have no business in Bosnia. We're not the world police, we're the United States military."

"They're sending food to people in Somalia. What's up with that?" junior Adam Borneman asks. "What about all of the homeless people on the streets in the U.S. needing food? Why don't we take care of our own problems?

"We help everybody else and nobody seems to want to help us when we're in times of need."

Senior Jocelyn Weart agrees. "We have enough problems with our own economy" that need to be fixed "before we go and try to be the Band-Aid for everyone else."

And Jason Lappe could use some help about now. The senior, a registered Democrat, plans to go to college with the help of government aid next fall.

That is, if Congress eases up on the cutbacks in education funding. "It's going to be harder to get some money to pay for where I want to go," he says.

Fed up with "phony" politicians, senior Mindi Sprenger hopes to elect a president willing to follow through with his campaign promises "instead of doing that just to get elected, and then sitting on his butt and playing golf like Bill Clinton does."

The Democrats probably shouldn't count on her vote.