Young people, WAKE UP!
Hopefully, you are paying attention to what's going on right now in Colorado. What you might not know is that the efforts to control curriculum in Colorado are backed by Americans For Prosperity, a Conservative think-tank that is funded by the Koch Brothers.
Our access to comprehensive sex-education is under attack. Here in my state of North Carolina, the Conservative-controlled legislature has taken away the opportunity for 16 and 17 year olds to pre-register to vote, ended the tax deduction for 529 College Savings Plans, and made cuts to public education affecting both teachers and students.
Our environment is in dire need of protection and our President just addressed the United Nations saying, “We cannot condemn our children and their children to a future that is beyond their capacity to repair."
The Koch Brothers and their friends, through organizations like Americans for Prosperity and ALEC,
come up with policies and model legislation and then these policies go
on tour. This means that what you've seen happening in Colorado and with
curriculum materials in Texas could soon be coming to a school near you. It means voting rights and opportunities in your state could be coming under attack if they are not already. It means that you could have a better chance of seeing fracking in your state than policies to protect your environment.
The Koch Brothers and their friends are counting on your continued complacency. They are counting on you being too absorbed in your new iPhone or the latest video game to bother to register a single voter. They are counting on you not talking to others about the issues and the candidates you support. They are counting on you to think calling out the absurd and crazy ideas some of their candidates support is "negativity" and they are counting on you to feel powerless, helpless, and hopeless in the face of our challenges.
The future of our nation is counting on you to stand up, speak up, and take action. Your fellow citizens are counting on you to fulfill the promise of the leaders who came before us. We are part of the vision they had for our country and we have the responsibility to honor their legacy.
From now through the upcoming midterms and beyond, we must be engaged. Our challenges will not be met in one election cycle. We must remain vigilant and active to send a clear message to the Koch Brothers and their friends that the future of the United States can not be bought and that young people will not be discouraged by their messages that disparage and attempt to dissuade us.
There is no challenge we face that we cannot overcome through the power of the people at the polls. It has always been the young people of this country who have helped move us forward. If we stop, progress stops. This is our choice. This is our charge. This is the real call of duty.
“We cannot condemn our children and their children to a future that is beyond their capacity to repair."
ReplyDeleteThis is practically verbatim my biggest fear. We can vote for people we believe will do the best job of making things better instead of worse, but that is dependent on good people actually running. As nice as it would be to just say "Well the millenials and Gen Z can fix things when they are running things" we really can't afford to wait that long.
Gen y isnt going without a fight either. Doing our best...but the monetary educational and political systems are all against us.... they can't strip our pockets of our voice......
DeleteWell, I had a rather long and really well thought out comment that Google dropped when it told me to sign in. Unfortunate. I wanted to say that I fully agree with everything you have said that I have read. I belong to the Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. Those of us who haven't succumbed to the neoliberal call and the wealth of the Goldman-Sachs bankster crowd. I believe in a Populist Democratic Party that supports the human rights of all of the people, in America and around the world. We are few in number of leaders and we certainly will never see the multi-$Millions in "contributions" (read bribes) that the other side is blessed with. But we have numbers, and we will need those numbers to speak with one voice to be heard above the "free speech" purchased by the $Billionaire Oligarchy. Somehow millions of Americans must become aware of the erosion of our civil liberties, our institutions, our livelihoods, and become motivated to step out in the streets much as the Climate Change March did in New York and around the world. The movement is happening around the world even now, although we are unlikely to hear about it from our corporate media. But to really make an impact it must include a strong base in the United States. America will be the last to stand because we have become comfortable and complacent, leaning back on the Constitution and Bill of Rights that are supposed to be inalienable. However we know that since 911 that is no longer true. I believe you are well placed in a position of leadership in that effort. Thank you for what you do.
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