Applause and Push

In the White House's Fact Sheet entitled "U.S. Support for Strengthening Democratic Institutions, Rule of Law, and Human Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa," the White House has officially stated that they are in full support of Kenya's new "Yes Youth Can's" campaign My ID My Life.
This is a campaign in Kenya that allows the youth of the country to obtain national identification cards, a requirement for voter registration in Kenya. Approximately 500,000 Kenyan youth were able to receive a National ID prior to the March, 2013 elections.
"Yes Youth Can" is an organization started by Mercy Corps in 2011 to ensure peace and stability in Kenya. As their website points out:

Kenya was rocked by post-election violence in 2007, when armed groups of young people stirred up by local politicians killed more than 1,500 people across the country... Yes Youth Can engages Kenyan youth in community outreach and small business creation, empowering them to transform their lives and their country. They are actively involved in finding productive solutions to the issues they face.

This is an amazing organization and one that should be applauded by the President and the American people. However, since we are going to applaud them, why don't we take a page out of their playbook?
When people bring up the idea of voter ID's, the first reaction from dissidents is that it is racist. That somehow making people prove citizenship and legal voting age is racist. Lower class citizens, mostly of minority races, won't be able to pay for these extra IDs.
So it's racist to force people to have IDs for buying alcohol and tobacco, get on a plane, open a bank account and work for most businesses? This isn't an argument about race, it's an argument based around the integrity and importance of every single vote. We are a society that is fine with IDs to get behind the wheel of a car, be a government employee or enter a nightclub, but we will move mountains in order to stop people from having to prove citizenship in order to do their duty to the country.
These IDs would be given, free of charge, to each citizen that applies to vote and can prove their citizenship (Certified Birth Certificate, U.S. Passport, Naturalization Certificate or Certificate of Citizenship etc.).
We need to start protecting the one thing that every single adult citizen of these United States is called to do by their government; vote. And one way that we can do that is by driving the point of these voter IDs into the minds of our friends, relatives and Congressmen.
Applaud Kenya and push for the same requirements in your country. Now, go!
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