Recorded from Frostburg, Maryland, 2021.
This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Maryland Voices initiative at Maryland Humanities, specifically to supplement the "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America" traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program. This collection, made up of stories of first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 24, showcases the experiences of young people as they wrestled with the 2020 presidential election, issues around social justice, the environment, immigration, and the pandemic. The full collection of stories is available at www.museumonmainstreet.org.
Max Hancock (00:00): Hi, my name is Max Hancock. I use he, him, his pronouns. I'm from the Annapolis region of Maryland, but when I moved off to college, it was to Frostburg.
Max Hancock (00:15): I'm hopeful for the future because I know that a lot of people share the sentiments that I do. And I'm hopeful for the future in the way that, sometimes, I think it can only get better from here. I'm trying to be optimistic. We have a lot of room for improvement, and a lot of people who are so, so capable of making those changes, and people who are so motivated and talented. I have met so many awesome people in my life, Americans who I have no doubt are going to change the world somehow, somehow.
Max Hancock (01:06): So I'm hopeful for the future, but I think the process of getting to that future is going to be tough, violent even. My friends and I toss this around sometimes, like how soon do you guys think it's going to be before there's violent revolution? Right now, I'm giving it 10 years. I don't really want that.
Max Hancock (01:36): I'm in college right now. I'm having a really good time in college. I would not like to have that disrupted, but if something doesn't change soon about the way that we view money, and the way that we view human life, and the way that we view race and gender and a million other of these little conflicts, something is about to explode. Something's going to happen soon.
Asset ID: 2021.03.13.d
