Fairfield Ludlowe High School's Democrats are presenting a panel discussion on "21st Century Activism and the Future of the Democratic Party" on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Ludlowe's auditorium.

The panel will include First Selectman Ken Flatto; Jim Himes, the Democratic Congressional candidate for District Four; state Rep. Kim Fawcett, D-133; and Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America, which is "the nation's largest progressive political action community," according to democracyforamerica.com.

Organized by the Ludlowe Democrats, which are headed by seniors Daniel Fischer and Thomas Silk, the evening's program will consist of a private reception for club members with the members of the panel from 6:30 to 6:50 p.m. At approximately 7 p.m. the discussion will begin with a presentation from Silk, Fischer and other club leaders about the purpose of the Ludlowe Democrats. The panel discussion will start directly thereafter, followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. A performance by Built in Motion, a local town band, will close the evening.

Fischer, Ludlowe Democrats' president, began the club with Silk in March. The school also has a club for Republicans. "The Ludlowe Democrats started about two months ago when

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Dan told me that he had a connection with the head of the Connecticut Young Democrats and asked me if I was interested in helping him start it," Silk wrote in an e-mail to the Fairfield Citizen-News on Tuesday. "The idea for our May 13th event came when we discovered that Jim Dean, the head of Democracy for America, resided in Fairfield and we thought that since we were both seniors, holding an event like this would cement our organization for future years."

Estimating about 50 members at this point, Fischer wrote in an e-mail on April 24, "So far, we've installed a memorial honoring soldiers in Iraq to mark the fifth anniversary of the war, shadowed Kim Fawcett for a day in Hartford and participated in an anti-war demonstration in New York." On April 25, Fischer's club hosted an Email-the Governor station outside of Ludlowe's library intended to assist people in e-mailing Governor M. Jodi Rell, urging her to sign the global warming bill HB 5600. "We were able to send out 93 emails to the Governor's office in the course of a few hours," Silk wrote.

"On June 2nd, we are hosting a non-partisan fundraiser for the Genocide Intervention Network's Civilian Protection Program in Darfur," Fischer also noted in the April 24 e-mail. "We will be showing the Darfur documentary 'Sand and Sorrow' and Holocaust survivor Agnes Vertes will give opening remarks." The event will take place at Roger Ludlowe Middle School at a time yet to be determined.

Silk and Fischer are inspired to plan events like the aforementioned through a joint belief that their generation can make changes through the political system. "I think that I can speak on behalf on Dan and [myself] when I say that we think it is very important for activities like these to try to promote youth involvement in politics," Silk wrote. "The average high schooler in America usually has higher priorities than following local elections and whatnot. It's not just teenagers who don't pay attention but voter turn out for all elections in the United States are extremely low in comparison to other democratic countries. We are trying to show that participation matters and is a vital part of any functioning Democracy."

As far as Fairfield specifically, Silk maintains that the town is a perfect venue for fostering participation in local and national government. "We have great schools that are willing to support us and we have a lot of very intelligent kids who, when they get passionate about a cause, they try to do something about it," Silk opined in his e-mail. "We want to build off of this kind of student initiative that we have at our disposal and use it to promote values that we view as important."

May's panel discussion is intended to be a town-wide event for Fairfielders of all political backgrounds. Fischer and Silk are aiming for 200 attendees if not more. "The discussion that we'll be having will be about youth activism in politics and each person on the panel's opinion of the future of the Democratic Party," Silk wrote. "We're basically giving the participants some leeway with what they individually want to talk about as long as it pertains to the issues."

Fischer and Silk will attend Wesleyan University and Fordham University respectively this fall. "In terms of the club's future, we have many underclassmen who have taken interest," Silk assured. "We hope that the events that we have done will help cement our club. We anticipate for the club to do a lot with the presidential elections in the fall and we hope that we will be able to continue for years to come."