In my early days in the U.S. Navy, and indeed through much of my 20-year career, I had difficulty doing things simply because a senior person said that was the way it had always been done. (I know, right? But I was young and thought I knew stuff.)
The senior response usually began with a version of “When I was your age …”
I eventually retired from the Navy, started a new home, and fulfilled a few long-held dreams, including qualifying for an amateur radio operator license. In those days, a prospective Ham — as those communications hobbyists were called — needed to demonstrate proficiency in Morse Code, a system of long and short beeps that, in the days when voice communications were difficult, if not impossible, to understand, could get a message through.
Some civil war buffs may point out that Morse code could be sent using a railroad track and a battery (though telegraph wires strung on poles were way more efficient).
But then came personal computers, popular and easily applied to communications. They gave rise to a new class of Ham operators, often called “No Code Techs.” Many older operators objected. Some refused to talk to anyone who had obtained a license without passing the code qualification.
I tell those stories to tell this one.
It’s about a 25-year-old named David Hogg, a survivor of the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Hogg became an anti-gun-violence political activist and, in February this year, was elected co-vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Hogg, who also founded the Leaders We Deserve Political Action Committee, held the DNC position until some members learned of his intent to recruit candidates to replace incumbents who had been underperforming in representing Democratic voters’ interests. In June, the DNC found an excuse to hold another election, and David Hogg was out!
And it’s about a thirty-three-year-old wannabe mayor of New York City. Zohran KwameMamdani bested 67-year-old former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democrat nomination to run in November for mayor of New York City. Cuomo is well-known in New York politics, but resigned the governorship in 2021 amid accusations of sexual misconduct.
The party’s politically established deep pockets are actively opposing Mamdani. New York incumbent Democrats have talked about him the way kindly relatives pat a precocious youngster on the head.
Kathy Hochul, the Empire State’s 66-year-old governor, says she has to work with current NYC Mayor Eric Adams until January, which is two months after the election. Sen. Chuck Schumer, 74, congratulated him for winning and promised to meet with him. And Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, 54, said after the election he didn’t know Mamdani “that well.”
In a New York Times report, some big-money Cuomo backers have said they will likely support the 64-year-old Adams. Adams was facing federal corruption charges until Pres. Donald Trump’s Justice department ordered the charges dropped in April because Trump needed Adams’ help with Trump’s anti-immigrant program.
NYC landlord Scott Rechler, who contributed $250,000 to Cuomo’s failed campaign, has been reported saying that in a general election contest between Mamdani and Adams, he would put his support and potentially his financial resources behind the scandal-tarred incumbent.
Mamdani won the primary election and the right to run for mayor in November. He is young and energetic with ideas his voters have at least indicated wanting to hear more about. He deserves a listen. He deserves not to be silenced by the Old Guard simply to keep things the way they were “when they were his age.”
We often talk about our young people being our future. It’s time we gave them the respect of hearing them out.
Text and Images ©2025 John Messeder. John is an award-winning environmental storyteller, nemophilist and social anthropologist living in Gettysburg, PA. He may be contacted at john@johnmesseder.com