San Diego, CA
We were pleased once again to attend The College Board’s annual Inspiration Awards luncheon last week in Washington DC, honoring three truly excellent schools. We listened to remarkable young people from Green River High School in Virginia Beach, VA; Hogan Preparatory Academy in Kansas City, MO; and Medgar Evers College Prep School in Brooklyn, NY declare their passionate commitment to careers in public service and their desire to run for public office – even, as several of them said with a twinkle in their eyes, to be President of the United States.
The event was thrilling and inspiring in the extreme. It gave us great hope for our nation’s future, a sentiment expressed well by former Congressman Kweisi Mfune who said after the ceremony that, “It’s good to know who’s on the battlefield and who’s coming behind you. Given what we’ve seen from these young people today, there can be no doubt about our future.” Well, maybe.
The problem is the enormous gap between the earnest, honest, and public-spirited orientation of these young scholars and leaders – who truly want to rock the world – and what we actually get from the adults who purport to lead us. As I listened to these young people, occasionally with tears of joy in my eyes, I simultaneously conjured images of the “me first” blind ambition of a Mitt Romney, Andrew Cuomo, Carly Fiorina, and Sarah Palin or the utter lunacy of a Sharon Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Joe Miller and, yes, Sarah Palin and asked myself, “What have we wrought?” Or better still, “Why such rot?”
How can we the people help these extraordinary kids avoid the selfishness and rancid divisiveness that is public life today? Sure, most of these great young people will ultimately avoid elective office – as so many sane people do, much to our peril – and make amazing contributions in the education, non-profit, and business sectors. That’s wonderful, but we need more of them running for Congress, governorships, and other offices. The climate that we have created in Washington DC these days – the circus, really, and it’s a litter box that’s ours to own – will find many of them turning their back on politics just when we need them most. What a shame. More important, what a peril.
We assume that youthful idealism, passion, and reason will eventually get beaten down by the “system.” Somehow the so-called “real world” is supposed to enter stage right and coat these wonderful young people with the thick syrup of doubt, unreasonableness, and cynicism. Well, enough already! Hasn’t the “system” proven to be so catastrophically broken that it’s time we embrace new ways? These kids can show us the way if our politicians would just get out of the way. I’m going to hang onto the memory of these young people during the next two years of bitter, vindictive stalemate and mind-numbing selfishness in our body politic.
We were pleased once again to attend The College Board’s annual Inspiration Awards luncheon last week in Washington DC, honoring three truly excellent schools. We listened to remarkable young people from Green River High School in Virginia Beach, VA; Hogan Preparatory Academy in Kansas City, MO; and Medgar Evers College Prep School in Brooklyn, NY declare their passionate commitment to careers in public service and their desire to run for public office – even, as several of them said with a twinkle in their eyes, to be President of the United States.
The event was thrilling and inspiring in the extreme. It gave us great hope for our nation’s future, a sentiment expressed well by former Congressman Kweisi Mfune who said after the ceremony that, “It’s good to know who’s on the battlefield and who’s coming behind you. Given what we’ve seen from these young people today, there can be no doubt about our future.” Well, maybe.
The problem is the enormous gap between the earnest, honest, and public-spirited orientation of these young scholars and leaders – who truly want to rock the world – and what we actually get from the adults who purport to lead us. As I listened to these young people, occasionally with tears of joy in my eyes, I simultaneously conjured images of the “me first” blind ambition of a Mitt Romney, Andrew Cuomo, Carly Fiorina, and Sarah Palin or the utter lunacy of a Sharon Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Joe Miller and, yes, Sarah Palin and asked myself, “What have we wrought?” Or better still, “Why such rot?”
How can we the people help these extraordinary kids avoid the selfishness and rancid divisiveness that is public life today? Sure, most of these great young people will ultimately avoid elective office – as so many sane people do, much to our peril – and make amazing contributions in the education, non-profit, and business sectors. That’s wonderful, but we need more of them running for Congress, governorships, and other offices. The climate that we have created in Washington DC these days – the circus, really, and it’s a litter box that’s ours to own – will find many of them turning their back on politics just when we need them most. What a shame. More important, what a peril.
We assume that youthful idealism, passion, and reason will eventually get beaten down by the “system.” Somehow the so-called “real world” is supposed to enter stage right and coat these wonderful young people with the thick syrup of doubt, unreasonableness, and cynicism. Well, enough already! Hasn’t the “system” proven to be so catastrophically broken that it’s time we embrace new ways? These kids can show us the way if our politicians would just get out of the way. I’m going to hang onto the memory of these young people during the next two years of bitter, vindictive stalemate and mind-numbing selfishness in our body politic.