With all the pundits floating around questioning whether Gov. Dean's withdrawl from the Presidential Race will herald the loss of the youth vote, its refreshing to see coverage of young people still taking action on their own...
Please read the extended entry... I gave it all I could muster.
Hip hop summit hits LA with `One Mind, One Vote' campaign
By Charlene Muhammad
Updated Mar 6, 2004, 11:10 am
LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com) - Scores of hip hop artists, young fans, ministers, scholars, politicians and wrestlers filed into the University of Southern California's Bovard Auditorium February 12 for the Hip Hop Summit Action Network's (HSAN) voter registration initiative, "Hip-Hop Team Vote," which has registered 60,000 new youth voters to date.
Heavy bass beats and hooks, emitted from 100.3-FM/KKBT turntables, shadowed voter em-powerment messages. The panelists answered questions on hip hop's role in politics, the music and film industries, and economic conditions in the "hood."
"The hip hop community is so powerful and, while some of us have been very successful entrepreneurs, it's just as important to acknowledge that we are a part of a larger community," stated Roc-A-Fella Enterprises CEO and HSAN co-chair Damon Dash. "We can make a difference by doing our part to empower kids to change the world. Voting is an important step toward that."
A day earlier at a press conference announcing the summit, he urged youth to attend, stating that with one vote and one voice, everyone could make a difference in the name of hip hop. Adults, he continued, could further aid youth by sharing their connections, contacts and information.
Summit moderator and HSAN's President and CEO Minister Benjamin stated that part of hip hop is simply telling the truth, and that the drama it reflects points to drama within the Black community. "Some of ya'll want the lyrics to change in hip hop--change the social condition in the community that the lyrics represent," he said.[...]
Hip hop "godfather" and HSAN Chairman Russell Simmons launched the "One Mind, One Vote" campaign early last year in support of his group's Hip Hop Team Vote's mission to register 20 million voters in five years. So far, the collaborative effort has netted over 60,000 new voters--20,000 of them in Houston, Texas during Super Bowl weekend alone.
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To me, it seems that the youth organization is not going away. While as far as I know the Hip Hop Summit was not partisan, I believe there is a strong movement within the youth of the Democratic Party looking for strong leadership as we move into an uncertain future. Whether this leadership will come from the DNC, the YDA, the CD, or from some independent partisan third party, I cannot say. What I do know is that it needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast.
I have worked very hard in politics and in the youth community over the last several months, and I can say from experience that the potential is there. It's there in Arizona, in Florida, in California, and in Virginia specifically. This states are key states, and I know that the youth vote can help.
With John Kerry as the obvious nominee for our party, I support him in his candidacy for the Presidency and will do anything I can to help him beat George Bush and give us the momentum we need to achieve the trifecta. I do fear, however that not enough effort has been shown by the Kerry Campaign to reach out to active (as well as inactive) young voters. Though he did win the youth vote in many states (according to CNN's Exit Polls) over Governor Dean, I have not seen the Kerry Campaign make a strong effort into building a strong relationship with my generation like we did at Generation Dean. I think that it is still possible for them to do this, and I believe it is critical if we want to win in what will promise to be an incredibly close election this November.
The potential is here. My Generation is just waiting for the discussion to be brought to them. We do not want to be spoken to, we want to be spoken with. We do not want - and in large part we will not be the 'foot soldiers' this year. The primaries saw a dramatic increase in youth voter turnout, and I believe that for that to move into November the Democratic Party Leadership and the Kerry Campaign are going to have to renew and redouble their efforts to reach out and bring young people into the debate.
I commend what the Hip-Hop Summit did and what their efforts symbolize. I commend organizations like the Youth Vote Coalition, Mobilize America's Youth, etc. I am enormously proud of the movement we have built, but I fear that a dozen small voices will be lost and ignored, while one powerful voice will resound and bring about meaningful change... And that really is the point, isn't it?
The Youth Community is once again blossoming into a strong political force, as it did during the Vietnam War (not to imply that our recent growth has anything to do with the war). I think that real potential exists, but we need a strong leader. I hope that the Democratic Party Leadership will step up to the plate, but an independent organization will do the trick for me. While the Democratic Party rallies behind one candidate for President, I believe that the Youth Movement needs to rally behind one banner for change.
I welcome any thoughts you have on the matter.