8/2/2019 Youth Like An Ilya Sheyman For Congress -- Our "Lemonade"

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March 18, 2012

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Miles J. Zaremski

Attorney, Writer andCommentator

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Youth Like An Ilya Sheyman For Congress -- Our "Lemonade"

Posted: 03/15/2012 12:05 pmRead more

10th Congressional District-Illinois , Youth For Congress , Brad-Schneider , Ilya Sheyman , Chicago News

My Congressional District is the 10th in Illinois. Up to now, it was known as the district for the tony north shore of Chicago where only aRepublican has held court for years. With the latest incarnation of a redistricting map drawn up by Illinois' Democratic Legislature, the10th now zigs and zags through a demographically and socio-economically diverse cross-section of northern Illinois that could assist aDemocrat to become the district's first Democrat in who knows how long.

I went to a fundraiser recently for a candidate by the name of Ilya Sheyman of Waukegan, a bright, energetic young fellow whose lineagehails back to Russia from where his parents emigrated and commenced the "American story" by settling in the Chicago area andprospering from there. He graduated from a well-thought-of Chicago area high school followed by attendance at McGill University where

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8/2/2019 Youth Like An Ilya Sheyman For Congress -- Our "Lemonade"

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he obtained his undergraduate degree. He went on to become a noted community activist (remember the roots of our president?) and iswell known for his experience in progressive circles. I do not know him personally. Though there are four candidates running in ourDemocratic primary to be held on March 20, his main competition appears to come from a Mr. Brad Schneider, a 50 or so gentleman fromDeerfield whom I have also yet to meet. Though each has slung some mud at the other, and both have been suitably endorsed, forpurposes of this post, none of this matters. Neither does the fact that these two candidates are quite similar in their views on the issues.Strangely enough, what does objectively distinguish them is... age.

For you see, Mr. Sheyman is 25, and his principal opponent is using that reality to garner votes. In a recent mailer, the latter basically toutsthat without having a family of one's own, a marriage, and a job in the workforce for some time, one cannot be qualified to be acongressional representative. To this why, I would say, why not? After all, being 25 years of age still qualifies one to become a member othe House of Representatives. But the more that I thought about this age thing, the more the (well-worn) thought of turning a "lemon" into

"lemonade" kept invading my thoughts.

To be clear, neither youth nor Sheyman are in any way lemons but I use the metaphor to express a point, as further explained in this post.That is, we all know that Congress is broken because it does not get anything done. Sure, we voters harp and harp and complain andcomplain about this, yet Congress does not get anything done for us; our words fall on deaf ears. Congress has become the most sour ofany lemon. As Chicago's [the "original"] Mayor, Richard J. Daley, is claimed to have said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

But what Congress has morphed into is seriously broken, greatly challenged, and needs to be fixed -- immediately, like by the nextelection. Why not then do it with age -- after all, nothing else has worked? This is not to say that youth alone qualifies one to become aCongressional House member. But with passion, dedication and the best pedigree that life of 25 years can offer, why not? I've knownfolks in Sheyman's age bracket who can outdo others with twice or three times the age and experience on their bones. Surely, those whodetermined that 25 qualified a man or woman for the House must have known what they were talking about.

In all transparency, I cannot say touting youth to represent us in D.C. originates with me. I first heard it publicly advocated by Dr. HowardDean, former Vermont governor, former chair of the DNC and currently a political pundit who supports the progressive movement. Deanspoke in support of Sheyman at the fundraiser I referred to atop this post. Governor Dean said that if Mr. Sheyman wins the primary andthen beats the Republican who presently is our representative, he (Sheyman) would be the youngest member of Congress.

So using Sheyman as but in microcosm to what will fix Congress, his type age is as worthy, if not more so, a fix than anything else tried todate [short of voting out of office all the "bums" there now] to get members of Congress off their you-know-what to do what they wereelected to do... undertake the business of the people.

Youth has incredible advantages, like not being bogged down with years of disgust, anger, and knowing first-hand that Congress is amonolithic dinosaur incapable of even tying its own shoelaces. Youth has fresh ideas, energy and a spirit unencumbered by any past thatcould be viewed as undesirable and that has not waned due to apathy and lethargy with the passage of years. Again, those who decidedage 25 was acceptable for being a Congressional House member knew that youth still will be able to accomplish the people's businesswithin the Beltway.

Howard Dean got it right on this score. Let's allow qualified youth running for Congress become our lemonade.

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