One of the major news stories the past two weeks has been about Elon Musk’s “audit” of the Federal Government. The legalities (or constitutionality) of this non-congressionally approved group is not what I want to get into. I encourage you to do research on this, utilizing trustworthy channels, such as Alt National Park- the official resistance of the National Park Employees who have been meticulously documenting what is happening within our government.
What I do want to start a discussion about is the way we are talking about the staffers behind Musk that are committing numerous crimes and access our personal data. There are many different narratives online right now: the staffers are young and don’t know what they are doing, they are young so they aren’t qualified to be a part of our government, they are too young to be able to say no- just to name a few. What is in common with all of the narratives? The core issue that they circle around is the age of these staffers.
I am the youngest County Chair in Pennsylvania, I became so at the age of 20 and am still in this position, this past year the county I lead went bluer than it did in 2020- one of only 13 PA counties to do so. The Candidate for our House of Representatives seat was the same age as me, and garnered a significant increase in support than the last several candidates who have run. Our Congressional Candidate was only two years older than me and outperformed our county. Many of those I work with in organizing capacities are the same age, or around the same age as me. One of our newest Vice Chairs for the DNC is the same age as me. Are we too young to know what we are doing? Does our age make us unqualified to be a part of the government? Despite being 24, I bring 9 years of activism and advocacy experience to the stage. Many of the people I listed above are the same way.
By putting down these staffers due to their age, and making an excuse that they are doing these things because of that inadvertently puts down our entire generation. If one of the most well known climate activists in the world is only 22 years old and began at the age of 15, is our generation not well versed enough? Yes, we are still learning. In the grand scheme of things, aren’t we all still learning? Both young and old?
Musk’s staffers know exactly what they are doing. They may be young, but the fact that they are young is not an excuse. It is not a way to let them off lighter. They are well aware that they are breaking the law, I believe that they are under the impression that their loyalist status will protect them from the law. We must ensure that it doesn’t, but we don’t have to be ageist in the way we do it.
Don’t put your country’s future leaders down and create further division in a time we can’t afford not to be unified. Call them what they are- criminals. They are not naïve youth.
Chris Kalcich 