March/April 2006

Editorial

Investing in Youth

By Virginia Wilber

I claim to be no more than an average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.

– Gandhi

After the death of the legendary Rosa Parks a few weeks ago, during the period when she was being eulogized, I heard many people comment, “They just don’t make ’em like they used to.” They were referring to a perceived difference between so-called “apathetic” young people now and an “active” generation of youth 30 to 40 years ago. It is not uncommon to hear the opinion that movements today – whether they be the anti-war, counter-recruitment, environmental, or anti-globalization movements – need charismatic leaders, leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. Older adults question why young people have not stepped up to fill the shoes of such heroes of our past. They question why, in the anti-Iraq War movement, they haven’t heard youth speaking out and protesting as they did during the Vietnam era.

The answer to these questions is that young people are stepping up, organizing, and leading all of these movements. The problem is that society fails to realize it – or prefers to focus on those who choose not to care. It reminds me of a phenomenon in education, where administrators spend more time punishing students who do not come to school or skip class rather than spending energy on and rewarding those who are there and are committed to learning.

Within each social justice movement there are countless young people working passionately to better their communities, nations, and world. However, youth everywhere share common struggles. Youth everywhere struggle with being marginalized by the mainstream media. Youth everywhere struggle to find resources and funding. Youth everywhere struggle to create meaningful mentoring relationships with adults who are experienced activists. Youth of color everywhere struggle to gain equality within our movements. Youth everywhere struggle with a lack of appreciation.

We must realize, too, that in a society that glorifies violence, materialism, and individualism, we can’t really blame young people when they reflect those values. With a narrow-minded and expensive education system, with a conservative, increasingly religious government, with inadequate health care, with minimum-wage jobs, we can’t blame youth for not being more compassionate, tolerant, and nonviolent human beings.

Still, if you are one of those people who have been asking why there are no young leaders around us, I challenge you to look more closely. Despite all the stumbling blocks, there are youth – perhaps not featured in the nightly news or in the headlines of the daily paper – who are out there creating change. Could it be that society is diminishing their accomplishments?

This issue of Fellowship is dedicated to uplifting young people’s voices and campaigns, highlighting their many victories despite great odds, as well as looking at the significant challenges young activists face today. We seek to recognize young people for their persistent efforts to fight the uphill battle of social justice and to honor their ongoing commitment.

As co-editor of this special issue, I hope that in reading it you will be encouraged by your encounters with youth organizers and charismatic young leaders taking our social justice movements forward. I also hope that you will grow angry at our media and society in general for ignoring so much positive work. Perhaps by the end of this issue, you’ll have decided that a well-known phrase should be flipped upside-down, and that in actuality “it takes a child to raise a village.”

Most of all, I hope that after reading this issue you will commit to investing in youth activism today.

Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi possessed immense wisdom and charisma, and assisted in altering our world forever. However, they were also average human beings, with no more and no less power than you or I have. We must be careful: it is easy to yearn for someone to place on a pedestal, but in doing so we overlook both our own responsibility and the presence of those young people who are indeed stepping up and leading us toward a new day.

Virginia Wilber, 24, co-editor for this issue of Fellowship, is communications intern at the Fellowship of Reconciliation. She is also an organizer with FOR’s “I Will Not Kill” campaign.