Collage aid for illegals?  Allowing gay marriage?  Needle-exchanges in large cities?  Increasing Taxes?  These are some of the great idea's your teenager could be learning to lobby for at our local YMCAs.

I always thought of the YMCA as a place where kids go after school to stay out of trouble in those "non-supervised" hours of 3pm-5pm, when kids are out of school but many parents are still at work.  And I suppose it still is.  But I guess because it is a Christian organization, I thought it was more focused on traditional values, individual responsibility and if it ever got political, it would be slightly to the right.

Well that is not the case at some of our local chapters.  Check out these ideas from local YMCA teenagers during a recent "Young Lawmaker" Day in Sacramento.

Young Lawmakers

While their grown-up counterparts took a whack at the state's budget problems, hundreds of YMCA model legislators arrived at the state Capitol late last week for their annual session of model lawmaking.

Teenage delegations from the Inland area and around the state considered proposals to repeal California's marriage laws and give disabled parking placards to women in their third trimester of pregnancy.

The sessions continued into this past weekend. Bills and resolutions from Inland delegations included the following:

Corona-Norco YMCA: Making illegal immigrants eligible for financial aid to attend California State University and community colleges.

Desert Family YMCA: Repealing California's marriage laws and urging Congress to create needle-exchange sites in large cities.

Redlands: Increasing tobacco taxes to pay for college scholarships.

Riverside: Making women in their third trimester eligible for disable parking permits.

Southwest/Riverside: Requiring homeowners to take a fire-safety test to be eligible for insurance and asking Congress to outlaw growth hormones and other additives in livestock that people will eat.

Obviously, these young kids are the more "parental" in their lawmaking than adults would be.  But isn't their anyone at these organizations that could point out reality to these teens that we are in a $16 Billion dollar deficit.  Maybe they could ask them if it is fair to let illegal immigrants get financial assistance over Californian students?  Maybe ask them how they would feel if they were that California student?

And is federal needle-exchange policy a real hot topic with teens these days?  Where do these kids come up with this stuff?