where i stand:

Youth Forum participants provide hope for the future

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Steve Marcus

Ricky Palenik of Liberty High School makes his point during the 2015 Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum at the Las Vegas Convention Center Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015.

Sun, Nov 29, 2015 (2 a.m.)

2015 Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum

Students pick up pens and notebooks at the start of the 2015 Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum at the Las Vegas Convention Center Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. Launch slideshow »

This is a time for thanksgiving.

We all have something in our lives for which to be thankful, some far more than others. Happy and healthy families and friends should be foremost among those blessings. In that regard I am a very fortunate fellow.

I am also most thankful for the Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum. I can’t take credit for starting the Youth Forum 59 years ago. That honor goes to my father, Hank Greenspun, and his incredible newspaper sidekick, Ruthe Deskin.

But I can share in the credit — along with Brian Cram and Sheila Lee — for keeping what might be the most dynamic student program of its kind in the country alive and well for the past 26 years. And with a little help from our friends and longtime partners in the Clark County School District — led by Superintendent Pat Skorkowski — this program that the American Legion once honored as the best for high school youths in the country will be around for many years to come.

I realize many people in Southern Nevada are unfamiliar with the Youth Forum. They don’t read about it in the newspaper, see it on television or hear about it on the radio.

But their are tens of thousands of Las Vegans who were Youth Forum participants when they were in high school; whose kids participated as juniors and seniors when it was their turn; or who paid attention to the voices of our young people in the media that give up their time and space to air the views of Clark County’s best and brightest high school students.

It is probably no coincidence that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority makes the space available this time of year for the Youth Forum, because it is apparent to anyone who watches these students in action — the teachers, principals, advisers and others — that there is truly a reason to give thanks.

These students represent the very best of Clark County, and whether the adults in the room agree with their opinions on the important matters of the day — we have some challenges, to be sure — the fact remains that these kids are mature in their thinking and feeling about issues that affect them.

It is not my intention to share the specifics of those forum discussions. The students chose representatives to present their conclusions in the newspaper, on television and on radio later this year (read the Sun and lasvegassun.com for times).

I do want to share an appreciation for the quality of these young people and the thinking process they bring to the discussion, as well as the respect for the opinions of other students that sets Forum participants apart from what we often see and hear about.

When I say I am thankful for the Youth Forum, it is because I come away each year with the firm belief that no matter the angst we feel about the news of the day and the worry that consumes us for our kids’ and grandkids’ future, our tomorrows will be well-served by the young leaders who fill the Convention Center on Youth Forum day.

The news that greeted the 1,000 or so students at the start of the day that Turkey had shot down a Russian jet somewhere near the Turkey-Syria border just amplified the difficult decisions these young people make as they discuss, even argue about, the issues that confront us. What they are missing in experience and even knowledge — that’s the job of the adult moderators — is overcome by the respect they have for one another’s opinions.

Brian Greenspun is owner, publisher and editor of the Sun.

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