Places I Never Meant to Be: Despite what people say, things are looking up in youth political involvement

Residents of Allston-Brighton had the chance yesterday to participate in one of the most straightforward democratic races: the city council race between two candidates.

This race is special in a number of ways. First of all, it was being held because of the death of longtime Allston-Brighton city councilman Brian Honan. Second, there were originally nine contesting for the spot, and a primary in November determined the two final candidates Allston-Brighton residents decided between. Third, neither candidate ran on party affiliations and no party can claim the victory.

People have been complaining for as long as I can remember about how sick they are of the two-party system and how sick they are of the people in the two-party system. Yesterday’s election was everyone’s chance to get involved again, to get involved in something removed from this system.

Nearly 100 people attended the last debate, which to me is a good sign. It’s the sign of changes to come, of how people want to be involved in government, starting at the local level.

I know the city council race isn’t that exciting, but it is a start. So many people keep complaining about how corrupt politics is and how nobody cares about the future of politics, but here is the chance for everyone to get involved. The city council race can be the beginning of a new era for college students.

The average person reading the newspapers often can see headlines about how apathetic Americans are today, or how college students cannot locate Iraq on a map. But these headlines and articles are not telling the whole story.

I can tell just by reading the opinion pages of this newspaper that college students are not apathetic. Just the letters printed about the columns I wrote this semester show how much people really care about what is going on in the world.

The establishment wants us to believe that nobody cares and nobody realizes how world affairs affect everybody. But I know this theory is wrong people just seem to believe today that no amount of activism will change the way things are. When people are given the chance, they will stand up for what they believe in.

Last week, at the Boston Public Schools Committee meeting, sixth, seventh and eighth graders from the Robert Gould Shaw Middle School in West Roxbury stood outside in the freezing cold to distribute pamphlets about their middle school closing. Some of them wrote speeches to give before the school board. They stayed at the meeting for over two hours to hear what was going to happen to their school.

These kids are my new heroes. They stood there and faced up to a group of adults who seemed to be determined not to listen to them. They fought for their school against adults who tried to quiet them with budget numbers and demographics.

Everyone can fight like they did. These kids knew what they believed in and they stood up for it. We all need to take a cue from them and join together to fight all the injustices going on in the world right now.

If everyone who is against the war in Iraq, or everyone who just does not want to see our friends die in another war over oil, joins together, we can make a difference. This is our turn this is our chance to make this nation what it can be.

When I was younger, I wished for something to happen to prove my dedication to ideals of democracy and freedom for all. I wanted to prove I was better than the bureaucratic government and I wanted a cause celebré to prove it. I actually wanted to go a college with a complicated past, so I could claim proudly I had risen above it.

But I never could have wished for what has happened in the past year. The events of the past year have taught me to never take tranquillity and peace for granted. This nation is about to go to another war in Iraq while we are still fighting a war in Afghanistan. At the same time, civil liberties in this country have been placed on the back burner. The FBI is watching all Iraqis and Iraqi-Americans with dual citizenship in this country.

The actions of our government affect everyone. Despite any claims that this war has no effect or monitoring of Iraqi-Americans is not important to them. Iraqi-Americans are only the first group to be monitored soon it could be like the Red Scare of the 1950s where anyone could be monitored if suspected of being a communist.

But, back on the war itself, I already have a friend stationed in Iraq, and another is probably going to be shipped to the Middle East sometime early next year.

On a more domestic level, the war is going to affect the economy. The slumping economy will affect whether or not us college students will be able to enter the workforce. The slumping economy caused the Boston Public School Committee to close the R.G. Shaw Middle School in West Roxbury. This war affects everyone in so many ways, and it can be stopped if we continue to fight for what we believe in.

We can stop these changes if we work together. I named this column ‘Places I Never Meant To Be’ because these are things I wished would never happened, but now they have and I have to write about them. With each passing week, there are more and more places I never meant to be, but we can change this.

I know people really care about what is going on in the world. The kids from West Roxbury are just one example. The Allston-Brighton city council race debates have drawn hundreds of residents. These local issues are just the beginning. Together we can bring change to the whole world. I know we can make the world a better place, and I may be out of a job because I won’t have anything to complain about, but it could be the best thing to ever happen to me.

The Allston-Brighton city council could be the start of something entirely new for all of us. It could the beginning of everyone participating in government affairs. And I can’t stress this enough: we can change things and bring on a better world.