The Power Of Youth

If we are to reach real peace in this country and world at large. We shall have to begin with youths.

This is a time of bold measures. This is the country, and you are the generation. Great changes in the destiny of mankind can be affected only in the mind of youths. This world demands the qualities of youth; not a state of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.
The secret message communicated to most young people today by the society will run itself quite nicely until they at some distant point in the future will take over the reins. For the society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of even very young people is imbecile.

“We are all creative, the more we increase the active participation and partnership with young people, the better we serve them and the more comprehensively we work with them as service partners, the more we increase our public value to the entire community”.

This is not class warfare, this is generational warfare. This administration and old wealthy people have declared war on young people. That is the real war we have got to talk about.

Where after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world, yet they are the world of the individual person. Such are the places where every man, woman, child, seeks equal justice, equal opportunity and equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.

Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. Young people are free to act on their initiative and can lead their elders in the direction of the unknown. The children, and the young, must ask questions that we would never think to ask, but enough trust must be re-established so that the elders will be permitted to work with them on the answers.

“Our youth are not failing the system; the system is failing our youth”.

Ironically, the very youth who are being treated the worst are the young people who are going to lead us out of this nightmare.  If it is clear, youth will be encouraged, and listened to, and preparations are well thought out, you are certainly set up for success. Having youths on boards and commissions has been a rewarding experience for everyone involved.

Youth feel their voice is valued and that they have an impact on city decisions. Adult members benefit from the fresh perspectives, optimism and enthusiasm youth bring to the table. Youth involvement has moved forward, it is no longer seen as a rebellious act, the way it was a few decades ago.

Rather than standing or speaking for youths, we need to stand with youths speaking for themselves.

We need to build environments and policies for our collective future. There’s a radical and wonderful new idea that youths could and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people’s ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on the world. It is an idea with revolutionary implications, if we take it seriously.

“Youth voice is crucial to overall effectiveness of service”. Any society that does not tap into the energy and creativity of its youth will be left behind, we all benefit by having young people exposed to the way things are done in a democratic society.

Isn’t it time to tap the power of youth?

JOY TIKU ENIGHE

A World at School Global Youth Ambassador