Yesterday I had lunch with my girlfriend Kim who I haven’t seen in the last five months. We’ve been communicating and keeping in touch via e-mail, but for some reason those exchanges only touched the surface of what had been going on in our lives. Usually when the two of us get together, our time is dominated on discussions of screenplays (we met during UCLA screenwriting course), movies, my job and what stage project Kim is currently performing.
Interesting or maybe even bizarrely, we have not had one conversation about the primary, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the economy or the high price of gas. This alternate universe was about to be brought into sharp alignment with what’s going on in the rest of the world. I am almost forty; single and I have no children. But it’s okay because my family is heavily populated with children representing the next generation.
When I engage these youngsters in conversation I cannot help but be concerned that they are not prepared for life after high school or worse, not prepared to live in this world created by fear and the George W. Bush Administration. I find my nieces, nephew and cousins bored, self-involved and detached from society. They only show enthusiasm for MySpace, AIM, cell phones and music videos.
When I discussed this issue with friends, I get the "hasn’t this always been a problem with the youth?" My response to that question is, "Does that make it okay?" I can honestly say that it made me want to cry to think our country could be at war in two countries and on the brink of war with a third and yet my relatives between the ages of 15 and 18 are not paying attention. I thought WTF is going on and what are they teaching them in school? Not to mention that my adult relatives were also failing to have these discussion with them as well.
Fast forward to today and what I decided to do. First, I voted for Obama in the primary and have since donated over $500 bucks, but I wanted to do more. I decided to conduct a focus group with my Mom’s church youth group discussing why voting is important. After recruiting youth volunteers to assist with voter registration drives this summer with a focus on 18-24 age groups. Because after all these groups are our future, right?
While working on my presentation for the focus group, I was lucky to attend Facing Ourselves and History and met David Burnstein, a 19-year old who made the documentary 18in08. Basically, David wondered why the youth are not getting more involved in the election. Needless to say, I was happy that someone had done a lot of the heay lifting for me and floored that he was only nineteen years old. Well, in preparation for my focus group and subsequent voter registration drives, I created an event on MyBO and invited some friends including Kim to attend.
Yesterday, when I sat down to lunch with Kim she gave me a couple of nice surprises. First, she was a big BO supporter and was happy to say totally engaged by the election. Next, through her job she was working on a project called PeaceJam that was somewhat aligned with what I was feeling and thinking.
The PeaceJam Foundation has created a monumental project that is being called, "one of the greatest youth movements ever." It’s a decade long campaign called Global Call to Action with leading Nobel Peace Laureates working with youth to create projects that attack the ten core issues listed below, that the Nobel Laureates think are critical to the future of our planet:
• Ending racism and hate
• Social justice and human rights for all
• Halting the spread of global disease
• Equal access to water and other natural resources
• Rights for women and children
• Eliminating extreme poverty
• Restoring earth’s environment
• Controlling the proliferation of weapons
• Investing in human security
• Breaking the cycle of violence
Please visit the above cites and take a look at what PeaceJam is trying to accomplish. You never know, a child you know may get to participate in this wonderful program. Hearing about PeaceJam reinforced for me that there are a lot of things in our society that need fixing, but that we can make a difference if we put forth the effort.
Interestingly, PeaceJam’s motto is "Change Starts Here". I’m not suggesting a rip off from either organization. But I think it’s a good sign that they both are encouraging people to get involved in order to effect change.
Given how fun and enlightening our lunch was, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it will not be five months before Kim and I get together again.