Saturday, February 7, 2015

When Age Matters

As an American in Hessen (my local German state).....I tend to notice odd political talks.

This week, there was a discussion (short-lived, I admit) over the idea from the Green Party.....to reduce the age limit of a city council guy or mayor....down to eighteen years old.

Presently....you have to be twenty-five years old to sit on a city council or be mayor.....in the state of Hessen....if the city is 100,000 or more.  It's a state law and it's been around for years and years.  No one said much over the history of this and I suspect if we went back to the 1870s when Nausau was in effect (the old state name)....you probably had to be at least forty years old to get such a position.

What they generally said was that you need some life experience and training.....to handle the administrative requirements of city council or mayor....for a big town.

Some folks might argue over this....noting there's plenty of incompetence around from present city council members or various mayors in the region who are fifty or sixty years old.  Age might not be enough to judge a guy or gal.

Well, in the end.....the old rules remain in place.  No chance of some immature eighteen year old kid coming onto the Wiesbaden city council.

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