As recent writings by Ghostdancer and I have illustrated, the power of fundamentalist religious rule can have seriously opressive, even devastating effects on people’s lives, especially women’s and children’s lives. This is a concept extremely difficult for younger people who have never known anything BUT full personal freedom to grasp, much less be genuinely concerned about.
Add to this the fact that many young people have simply become turned off on the whole corrupt political scene, see the MSM as a joke and are very engaged in the frantic career building years that often keep them away from blogs like this one, and you end up with a whole lot of young voters who do not really understand that it is their freedoms on the chopping block these days.
I’ve been kicking this around for a long time now, with my 23 year old grand daughter, who is in law school now. I asked her to tell me how it is for her peer group, and how we could possibly reach out to them in ways that they could hear us, and be able to gain needed awareness that would motivate them to action on their own behalf.
One way she suggests involves providing an objective short news summary format (with links) on issues that impact their lives. She is encouraging me to take this on, in the format of an email newsletter with an initial email readership of young folks she knows who have expressed an interest in this.
I, however, have been dragging my feet, stuck in my fear that a 65 year old has NO business writing a newsletter for 20 somethings. (They scare me, they are SO sharp!) But this girl doesn’t take no for an answer very easily, either, so as of today, plans are in the making for a new email newsletter called “The Squawking Canary.” When it is up and running, I will post the URL and make it available for wider distribution for anyone else interested.
Like so many of us, I so much want to do my part in taking a stand against the tide of political/religious corruption and fanaticism that is threatening the country I love. And like so many, so much of the time I feel just plain powerless against it all, outside of writing for liberal blogs, LTE’s, phone calls, things that I still can do with limited mobility and very little money.
I wouldn’t have “chosen” this particular new (scary)! assignment, on my own. But sometimes, it truly IS the children who lead us. if we but pause to hear them.
Just this past week alone, a powerful 13 year old girl, and a powerful little boy from the past showed up on these pages, to tell their tale of life under the kind of rule so many in power are trying to attain again. Now I hear the voice of a living grandchild, loud, clear, and up close, saying. “Help us. Help us know. Help us understand.”
This makes me have to painfully see my own reverse ageism, in my tendency to judge the young people today as being too self involved to care. It also shoves me right out of my beloved comfort zone, onto brand new, scary territory.
I think this is happening to a lot of us older Americans right now. In a way, we are all being called to more active duty, I believe, right here on the home front, and are being asked to use whatever tried and true weapons and tools we’ve accumulated along our individual pathways. So…I guess it’s time for the ol Squawking Canary to report for duty, too.
