The New Movement
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I'm sick and tired of retired weekend activists and white bearded anti-war extremists saying that young people are lazy and disconnected. "You should be out marching to protest the war," they say. "Back when I was your age, I used to march ten miles per day to protest the war in Vietnam, and I did it barefoot, uphill booth ways!"
Things are changing in this nation, and on this planet. It may seem to the untrained eye that kids "now-a-days" are just sitting on there hands watching movies and surfing the web. This is simply not the case. The truth of the matter is that technology and new communication methods have changed the way burgeoning activists, and new school social justice workers operate.
To certain outdated uber-liberal-hippie-ish-baby-boomers, interacting in online communities may seem below the radar, it may even seem bourgeois, but for the herds of new young doers, it's the fastest, cheapest, easiest way to share ideas, event info, music and strategies. Online organizing is constantly expanding the range of possibilities for effective political actions. And go figure, them youngins are hip to it.
Does this mean going door to door to talk with people about important issues is done and gone? Has the "phone-banking" of yesteryear been replaced by automated email blasts and robotic telephone messages delivered en mass via "celebrity de jour"? The obvious answer to both of these questions is no. online networking will never be as effective as a face to face, person to person contact.
What the internet can provide is a great way to get tons of people informed and involved. So really, it's an additional tool in the arsenal of community organizers, helping facilitate the vital face to face work that happens on people's front porch. That's what I call hitting home.
Perhaps we should be taking to the streets with homemade signs instead of sitting glued to a lap-top organizing the next phone-bank. My gut tells me no. Personally, I'm ready to see some real change for the better. We can go march down the streets till we all have sun-burns and tired feet, but why not spend that time organizing an action that will get a great candidate into local office? This is the new "movement". I'll text you with the details….
Things are changing in this nation, and on this planet. It may seem to the untrained eye that kids "now-a-days" are just sitting on there hands watching movies and surfing the web. This is simply not the case. The truth of the matter is that technology and new communication methods have changed the way burgeoning activists, and new school social justice workers operate.
To certain outdated uber-liberal-hippie-ish-baby-boomers, interacting in online communities may seem below the radar, it may even seem bourgeois, but for the herds of new young doers, it's the fastest, cheapest, easiest way to share ideas, event info, music and strategies. Online organizing is constantly expanding the range of possibilities for effective political actions. And go figure, them youngins are hip to it.
Does this mean going door to door to talk with people about important issues is done and gone? Has the "phone-banking" of yesteryear been replaced by automated email blasts and robotic telephone messages delivered en mass via "celebrity de jour"? The obvious answer to both of these questions is no. online networking will never be as effective as a face to face, person to person contact.
What the internet can provide is a great way to get tons of people informed and involved. So really, it's an additional tool in the arsenal of community organizers, helping facilitate the vital face to face work that happens on people's front porch. That's what I call hitting home.
Perhaps we should be taking to the streets with homemade signs instead of sitting glued to a lap-top organizing the next phone-bank. My gut tells me no. Personally, I'm ready to see some real change for the better. We can go march down the streets till we all have sun-burns and tired feet, but why not spend that time organizing an action that will get a great candidate into local office? This is the new "movement". I'll text you with the details….
Here is a truth for you that you may not be ready to accept:: EDUCATED, INFORMED people do NOT vote; only the ignorant vote. The informed, truly educated, have no illusions about the system. Millions of good intentioned voters are "under the influence" of the puppet masters that control the information streams. ie. main-stream TV news, radio news, etc. Why do you think TV is called "programming"?
Informed folk do not watch any main-stream news. Currently, real truth is ONLY available from Internet shows like Coast To Coast AM, Mysteries Of The Mind, etc. and this too will be totally controlled soon. You can bank on it.
Get informed amigo. Have you not seen the DVD's "Loose Change 2nd Edition" and "Zeitgiest". These two DVD's should be "mandatory viewing" for all high school students and a minimum requirement for anyone requesting a voter registration card, and that includes you.
" Never let schooling interfere with ones education"
Mark Twain
Here is a link for you to a good place to start your education into reality. Read first about the most powerful agency in the world that answers to no one, and their diabolical agenda for america:
Link
If you can only read one book in your life, on what is about to happen on this planet, then this is the Bible.
"Behold A Pale Horse", by Bill Copper
Link
But, be forewarned. Not everyone is ready to hear the truth. This book WILL scare you to death. Bill Cooper, a former Navy intelligence officer, was assinated for writing this book.
Live Long and Prosper,
Emil
" Never let schooling interfere with ones education"
Mark Twain
the time for "opposition" is transforming into this new time of "proposition."
we are sick and tired of fighting for our little slice of the pie. we are baking our own pie. theres plenty of room in the kitchen, but the recipe does not call for pessimism.
I find it rather interesting that you seem to pose yourself as representing the voice of young people and some of the statements that you make where you fail to recognize the very history of the social justice movement and that of New Mexico in which you claim to represent. There is nothing new about "Getting a great candidate into local office", this has been a tactic used since the abolition movement, the civil rights movement, and the Chicano and American Indian movement nationally and right here in New Mexico. There are many great folk in office but the reality is that they are working in a system that is fundamentally racist, sexist, and classist.
Yes, things are changing and have been changing for the past few decades and much of the thanks and recognition should be given to those men and women who sacrificed their lives to fight for racial and gender equality, which we still have not achieved. For me as a Chicana woman, with roots over many generations in New Mexico, I find it rather disrespectful to our elders in the Chicano and Native Indigenous communities for you to belittle the act of direct-action and the accomplishments that have been achieved and the doors which have been forced open for us at such institutions as the university and for the matter the act of voting. For me it is an honor to work with the elders in our community and learn about their tactics and strategies and I am grateful for all their hard work for our benefit. These people didn't get paid for working in non-profit organizations or through internships they did this for their communities and families. They didn't jump around working on issues because it was the new trend for funding. They worked on issues and carried signs because they were fighting out of love and justice for their communities and families. Maybe as a young white man, in the U.S, you should recognize your own power and privelege before you start attacking those around you.
You state "Perhaps we should be taking to the streets with homemade signs instead of sitting glued to a lap-top organizing the next phone-bank. My gut tells me no. Personally, I'm ready to see some real change for the better. We can go march down the streets till we all have sun-burns and tired feet". This statement on your part just reveals your lack of respect for the struggles of many Chicano and Native communities here in New Mexico and the "real change" that they brought about with their homemade signs which you so easily poke fun at.
As you sit with your lap-top in your office or coffeeshop maybe you should check yourself because most of the brown youth in my community don't even have lap-tops or desktop computers at home, you know the digital divide.