By Margaret M. Treadwell
An amazing phenomenon is occurring in America, and the excitement is palpable. Have you noticed the increasing number of young people awakening to their responsibilities and rights as members of a democracy? The good news in this presidential election is the 18- to 29-year-olds stepping up to help heal our troubled country. While volunteering for the campaign, I have seen their actions match their beliefs and words:
• In Iowa, an eyewitness observed the young people trained in the grassroots approach to networking and organization bringing one individual at a time into the voting process months before the election. She said, “They understand that our democracy is fragile and can be lost if only 50 percent of eligible voters come out to vote. There is a spiritual aspect in mobilizing young people to become involved in politics.”
• In North Carolina, a college graduate accepts minimal pay for his work to register voters in rural counties where he often faces racism and threats. His hope, persistence and singleness of purpose are faith in action.
• In South Carolina, my 17-year-old godson writes about his involvement with fellow students who are getting everyone in the area surrounding his school, including inner city Charlestoners, active in registering voters and planning to get out the vote on Nov. 4.
• At the Bethesda Grassroots Obama Office (nicknamed the BOO), the intern program is equally balanced between promoting Obama’s candidacy and providing an educational experience for the young volunteers. An important part of that education focuses on understanding both their own candidate’s and the opponent’s positions.
In preparation for a recent Town Hall meeting, Montgomery County and D.C. high school students chose partners and researched issues for debate with one person taking the Republican position and the other, the Democratic position. Each debater smartly navigated the rough waters of the economy, social security, the war, environment and energy. Said one young woman who took the part of both McCain and Obama for an admirable debate on women’s issues, “The entire intern experience has been so exciting. The (volunteer) staff has given us students real responsibility and a voice.” A welcome sign at the entrance to the BOO reads, “Thank you for bringing your gifts of time, energy, spirit, ideas, talent, supplies, creativity, inspiration, labor, money, humor, passion and patriotism.” A small room set aside for quiet, meditation or prayer posts two printed questions: “Got Hope?” and “What are you grateful for?”
A lawyer who worked on both the 2004 and 2008 conventions says, “The young volunteers now are in sharp contrast to those in the last election. They are more tolerant, open and ready for change. They aren’t cynical about politics and, through their vision, purpose, and hope, they energize every sector of voters.
Her view is substantiated in author John Zogby’s recently published, The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (Random House, 2008). Drawing on surveys he conducted over a 20-year period, he predicts an optimistic future, the center of which is a group he labels the “First Globals,” consisting of the current 18- to 20-year-olds in the United States whom he found embrace diversity, feel connected personally to the rest of the world, are the first color-blind Americans and the first to bring a consistently global perspective to foreign policy and environmental issues.
How is this phenomenon changing First Globals’ families? Some family members simply can’t speak about politics without conflict. But a mother talks about her three sons, ages 30, 26 and 22, coming home last Thanksgiving inspired by Barack Obama’s memoir, Dreams From My Father, and how they convinced their politically weary parents to listen up: “Change is in the air; a new generation is coming along.” Now the whole family is volunteering.
Parents also tell me that although their political preferences may be different from their children’s, the communication about diverse opinions has grown more open and accepting. A father explains, “When a family can sit down together, discuss both sides, disagree and still respect and love each other, our bonds grow stronger.”
And will the young people from both parties come out to vote in November? Will they remain involved if their candidate loses the election? Will their faith be shattered? Or will their youthful spirit and resilience carry them through to find and support the strengths of the new president in reuniting our country no matter what the outcome? How can their families help them accept disappointment, look for positive ways to continue their good work, and never lose their faith and hope?
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the song without the words –
And never stops – at all….
Emily Dickinson (from “The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press, 1955))
Margaret M. (“Peggy”) Treadwell, LCSW -C, has been active in the fields of education and counseling for thirty-five years. Following a long association with Dr. Edwin H. Friedman, during which she served on his faculty, she co-edited and helped posthumously publish his book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix.