YES, WE CAN
The students and youth of America are truly inspiring. Their energy, sustained collective action and organization, and their rage reminds me of when I became politically active. This movement reminds me of the three simple words that inspired a movement to elect a president, YES WE CAN.
It has been nearly three months since I sat down to write a rant for Extra Newsfeed. To be honest, I felt uninspired and I grew tired of reacting to our embattled and incompetent President of the United States. I decided to take a break. I am back now with a renewed sense of energy. The youth of America have inspired me. They are channeling a long and rich history of student-led movements that have pushed us forward in pivotal movements of crisis, turmoil, and unrest. The students of Parkland and their contemporaries around the country are reminding me that we are the ones we have been waiting for. They are reminding me of the fundamental premise of YES WE CAN.
Students, teachers, parents, and averages citizens around the country took 17 minutes to honor the 17 victims of America’s latest incident of gun-violence mass murder. Shouting out to our nation’s elected leaders, these brave students and their supporters stated, #enough and walked out of school and work to protest America’s gun violence problem. One month after the horrific school shooting at Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida that left 17 students and educators dead and dozens injured, students organized #NationalWalkoutDay which is just one of several direct action campaigns being led by the Centennial Generation, many of whom will be eligible to vote very soon. I am fired up. I am ready to go. I have found hope again. I have found change again. I still fundamentally believe in YES, WE CAN.
In the days, after the Parkland Massacre, I did what I always do in moments after tragic incidents of gun-violence mass murder. I prepared to engage in what I have called “America’s Ritual of Thoughts and Prayers.” I issued a public statement because I received a few requests for comments from my local press because I lead my county chapter of the Young Democrats.
I told the press that I believe isis my job to lift these young voices up and move out of their way. The youth of our nation despite the criticism we have all heard, are WOKE. They are engaged. They are articulate. They understand the issues. They are mad as hell. They are tired of us suggesting that nothing can be done. They won’t take no for an answer. They believe in YES, WE CAN.
In 2008, Senator Barack Obama delivered a speech after his victory in New Hampshire that would go on to inspire a movement.
“For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we’ve been told we’re not ready or that we shouldn’t try or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.
I am a product of that movement. I have been inspired by kids who have spent a great deal of time using Snapchat and Instagram but that time looking into their phones and computer screens has prepared them to look directly into a camera and say enough is enough, with clarity, with earnestness, with conviction, and with a little rage. The youth of this movement is giving me hope again. I know what I have to do now. I have to make room for these emerging leaders. I have to recognize that these kids are doing something that many people thought was impossible. They are standing up to a gun lobby with a fearlessness that is humbling.
These kids understand what it is like to have bullets ricochet down hallways and have beloved friends and teachers murdered in front of them as if they were in some faraway war zone. These kids understand that there is the real power in sustained collective action. These kids believe in YES WE CAN. I will proudly join them in their efforts to craft a better future for the United States and future generation of students. Three simple words inspired a movement to elect a president and those same words are being used now to demand action to curtail America’s Gun-Violence problem. YES, WE CAN.
