Direction

The recent election of Barack Obama as the President of the United States has clearly made history. The first election of a black man as leader of the country is important in both what it means literally and symbolically for the United States and the rest of the world. However, I want to talk about the general direction that young people are moving, and how I feel that the vehicles used to achieve the ends that young people care about are the wrong vehicles and this is imperative to understand how the government will change and how people attitudes about government will change.

I would contend that people are becoming more passionate. People vehemently will stand up for religious beliefs, moral convictions, hunger, poverty, treatment of prisoners, treatment of war criminals, waterboarding/torture, being anti-Bush, being pro-environment, being pro-life or pro-choice, being an Obama supporter. My friend couldn't believe it when the Phillies won the world series and everyone was going downtown to see what craziness would happen. Instead of Phillies shirts and caps, he found people who donned clothing and displayed posters and signs for Obama. People are passionate. I say "Darfur". You actually know what that is. The only other chance that you would have known what that is if you randomly heard the name in 7th grade Geography.

The proliferation of information, and the rampant increase in technological advances over the last decade or two have allowed people to become connected with each other in a way never seen before. I'm wholly thankful that this is the case, because there are so many people who haven't been able to speak for themselves and to ask help from those who are able to give it. Recently, we have seen a trend where people, due to pluralism and special interest lobbying, have since dubbed the government as the source and cure to many of these passionate causes. I contend that, while this school of thought is something that is plausible and appears to be a good short-term fix for many problems it actually eliminates moral choice and is wrong for doing so. Also, it will serve as a disincentive for many people to become active in the first place, which current conditions have allowed. I truly believe that grassroots organization is by far the greater vehicle for solving many of the worlds deep-seeded problems, due to the nature and essence of what grassroots is, and also due to the beautiful morality which it encompasses.

I will further these points with 3 more paragraphs tomorrow.