A Tangent Turned Call to Action
So, what started as my annual “back to school” Facebook post, which I typically post to keep all my friends and family in the loop, turned into a whole call for action. I felt inspired, but as my friends would say, I just went off on another tangent and started ranting. I tend to do this. I started going on about why we need more young people involved and fighting for change. I am frustrated by the lack of youth engagement, but I do not blame us. I get it. I hear it all the time. I hear from my friends and other people I cross paths with that they just don’t care. I can relate to this. Speaking for the younger generation, we do care about what is going on around us, but sometimes we are discouraged. We often feel this way because when we do try to care, it feels like no one is listening to us. I hate that we share this common feeling, but we don’t have to feel this way . We play a big role in shaping our future. Our voices and different perspectives have the potential to drive change and bring what this world needs to the table.
Finding Connection Through Civic Engagement
This past summer, I was a part of something special. I got the opportunity to join BuildOklahoma’s Summer Cohort. Here, we focused on civic engagement and voter turnout, but I learned a whole lot more through this experience. I learned more than just Oklahoma politics; I got to feel connected with Oklahoma in a way I never thought I would. Connecting with Oklahomans, I heard a lot of apathy. Not just when it came to voting, but the whole process. I saw a lack of trust due to the lack of accountability, transparency, and authenticity. I saw this across all ages, especially from younger voices, from people like me. It saddens me, and I hate to break it to y'all, but our young voices are the future. They are our future. They are your family's future, and they are the country’s future. Our voices are one of the most powerful, so we need to use them because our future is at stake if we do not.
History Repeats Itself
As a recent graduate, still somewhat young and new at life, I’ve learned a lot about myself, and I desperately need other people my age to not just learn more about themselves, but also care to learn more about what is going on around them, because what’s happening now is and will directly affect our future. I get scared at the thought that sometimes it feels like we have gone back to a time where women didn’t have rights, or a time where people couldn’t be their true, authentic selves. Might I even say, it feels like I stepped into a time machine that took me back to a time where the thirteen colonies were still under British control and we had a king? No, I can’t say that, because that’s crazy, right? Well, crazy is getting a little too real for me right now. I am worried, and you should be too.
The worries, challenges, concerns, and injustices our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents faced decades ago are back. Some may say they never left, and I cannot completely disagree. The issues we are facing now are deep-rooted, but that calls for another conversation–a much longer conversation. The same issues our parents, relatives, and ancestors fought so hard to overcome are becoming our issue again. Now it is our turn. It is our turn to stand up and fight for our Democracy.
Our Responsibility as the Next Generation
As the next generation of leaders, advocates, and the working class, we cannot sit and watch this happen. We need to turn our worries and fears into a revolution. A revolution of young voices coming together for the sake of our rights and our future. I know, sometimes it may feel like our vote or our voices do not make a difference, but I need you to think bigger than that. I am not going to sugarcoat it and tell you it is going to be easy, because change is hard, and we cannot get discouraged. We need to think beyond just getting out to the polls to cast a ballot. We need to find ways to actively get involved in creating this change. Whether that means sharing or reposting a post or TikTok, organizing people to protest, signing up to volunteer, knocking on doors, or getting on the phone to talk to your legislator. One simple thing we can do that will make all the difference is talking to each other. It is time we engage in difficult conversations with each other because they are not going away, nor will they get any easier.
This should be simple, right? I mean, we talk to each other and connect on social media all the time. Whether it’s over the latest episode of Love Island, a funny Instagram reel in the group chat, fantasy football, the latest Crumbl drop, or the new GAP x Katseye ad, we definitely have the capacity to add some more topics into the mix.
WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTER OF HISTORY
As an overthinker and history nerd through and through, I desperately need us to wake up. We are literally going through a major point in history right now. One day, the next generation of students will be reading about current events in textbooks. Wild, right? It is insane, if you ask me, and kind of cool. It is cool because, as the next change makers, we can change the historical narrative. Instead of the next generation reading about people who cowered down to a king, they will read how we came together to take back control of our democracy. We are literally writing history, and who doesn’t want to be a part of that?
There will come a day when the history textbooks read, “The American Revolution Part 2”. A moment in history where America went back in time, living under an administration without direct representation. A time when they were controlled and expected to obey laws passed by a distant government that knew little of their daily lives or struggles. Sounds familiar, right? That’s because that is literally the plot of the first American Revolution in 1775. Luckily, history is on our side. Like the colonists who were frustrated by a king who they believed ignored their rights and voices, this injustice ignited something within them. It ignited a strong desire for self-determination. Do I have to be the one to say that we need to take a page out of their book? I don’t think so, because I think you get the picture by now.
Locke’s Reminder – Power Belongs to the People
I will leave you with John Locke’s theory of popular sovereignty. If you don’t know who John Locke is, he was and still is one of the most influential political philosophers, tracing back to 1632. On the topic of separation of powers and the dissolution of government, Locke claims community remains the real supreme power throughout, and that people retain the right to “remove or alter” the legislative power. He is quite literally saying that we have the power to replace our so-called “leaders” with better representation. Locke asserts that if the rule of law is ignored, if the representatives of the people are prevented from assembling, if the mechanisms of election are altered without popular consent, then we can take our original authority and overthrow the government. Now, I will admit that “overthrowing the government” is a bit intense, and that is not what I am saying we must do. I included Locke’s beliefs to get you to realize that We the People have original authority over our lives, we always have.
Keeping it Real
So again, I urge you to care about something bigger than yourself at this moment. Engage in meaningful conversations with those around you, get involved in a local campaign, or simply stay engaged through social media. If you are serious about making a change, then join me in volunteering my time and voice to spread the word about Mitchell Jacob for Congress. You just need to take the first step, and remember, you are not alone. I am scared too. The TikToks on my FYP page or tweets that genuinely feel like ragebait do not help this feeling, but we are in this together. We are all experiencing this at the same time, so we must stand up and speak out together, for each other.
I wish I could close on a positive note, but I am just here to keep it real with you. So instead, I will leave on a more serious note–only because it works when my mom does it. We must wake up and start taking these issues seriously because they will be ours to fix. Now, for a more hopeful closing, to balance the vibe. We can fix the current state of our country because it has been done before, and who better to do it? After all, we’ve seen throughout history that the best people to fix a problem are those being directly affected by the issue, but what do I know, right? I am just another young voice hoping for a better future.
