Young People First

It was fitting that the Democracy 2.0 Constitutional Convention was held shortly before the historic inauguration of a President whose mandate came from America’s youth. This is because the inauguration of Barack Obama represents not only an enormous opportunity and historic moment for our country, but because it represents the end of an era of purposefulness for young people in the United States.

For one special year, the lives of millions of young people were connected to the common purpose of renewing America by electing a new President—regardless of who their preferred candidate of choice was. If the engagement of young Americans in political life is going to continue, young people need new, powerful reasons to be in politics.

The Democracy 2.0 Constitutional Convention lent some momentum to the process. Talented, young people from across the country came together to discuss their ideas, plans, and opinions about how to build on what the youth movement has accomplished in the last few years.

Now, I’ve been thinking about how to get young people to transform their participation in the 2008 election into a powerful, independent voice for a focus on solving the long-term problems our leaders in Washington so frequently ignore. At Democracy 2.0, I found other inspiring Democracy Entrepreneurs with whom to trade ideas and forge alliances.

I was particularly moved by the efforts of Ana Hevesi, Jason Kende, and Pamela Tatz, who are pursuing a variety of initiatives aimed at reinvigorating civics education in the United States, both in and out of school. Projects like this brought home the importance of building for tomorrow’s youth movement, even as we are pursuing today’s objectives.

It’s not only the outstanding group of people who received funding at Democracy 2.0 that will help increase the momentum of the youth movement. It’s people like Jason Pollack of The Youngest Candidate, who’s inspiring and enabling thousands of young people across the country to run for office (www.theyoungestcandidate.com/).

I’m extremely grateful for having the opportunity to attend Democracy 2.0, and commit myself to pursuing collaboration with the amazing people who shared their ideas in Philadelphia.