This begins a weekly post from Unity08 campus organizers. This week we feature Zach Clayton, a senior at the University of North Carolina, and Lindsay Ullman, a junior at Yale University.
They say that the Millenials are an apathetic generation, but students on nearly 100 college campuses have already signed up for Unity08 since we launched the effort three weeks ago. Our goal: to ask every person on our campuses to sign up as delegates to the Unity08 online convention.
This week we launched the official Unity08 college campus effort. You can find out more at unity08.com/takeaction/college. A more expanded website page, which will help colleges network with one another, will launch soon. But for now, you can use this page to let us know that you want to join an existing college team, or to get one started on your campus. (And high schoolers, whether or not you're going to be eligible to vote in 2024, there's a place for you, too. Join us at unity08.com/takeaction/college).
Washington's politicians need to know that we are disgusted with politics worse-than-usual and that we are concerned for our country. Generally they only get a message when people vote. Signing up for Unity08 right now -- and bringing it to your college campus -- is another way for us to send them the message.
It's time to take ownership. We've grown up with the Internet -- it practically belongs to us -- and we're the ones who are going to pay the most (think an $8.4 trillion national debt) if our political system can't start dealing with real issues -- and fast. What better way to take our country back than to sign up everyone we know, beginning on our college campuses, to be delegates at the Unity08 online convention?
History is made by pioneers. We don't remember those who ratified the constitution; we remember the founding fathers who wrote it. So think of the Unity08 convention as being the Constitutional Convention of our time.
Get there early to have a seat throughout. Don't follow -- lead. There would be no aftershock if it weren't for the earthquake. That's what the pioneers provide. Wait and see is for followers.
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The United States military has removed the dictatorship and now is responsible for logistic support to the Iraq government. Implementation of positive identification cards or better for the citizens of Iraq will bring law and order along with checkpoint that require that positive identification to pass. Temprary removal of hard currency and implementation of electronic transactions only along with the buidling of "Temporary" walls between fighting factions will provide immediate control in ways that allow the U.S. forces to begin coming home....
Joe, you sort of sound like my political bio. My first vote cast was 64 for Goldwater and we all know how that ended. As a young businessman in the 60's-70's I thought I was a Republican, gave $ to Reagan and then when interest rates went over 20 under Carter, I knew I was a Republican. Somewhere al9ong the line, the young Republicans became the old Democratcs we wanted to get rid of in the first place. Over the following years, I realized the Democracts with posistions on civil rights, women's rights, Vietnam, etc. I thought more along that line. I did give $ to McCain but have voted both times for Clinton, Gore, and Kerry. Not in my 64 years have I seen anything like the "gang" in Washington today. I am not going to support any candidate because he or she is Republican or Democract but because of their stance on the issues. Campaign reform, special interest groups, health care, and a economy that is prosperus for ALL Americans and not just the few, as it is now. Conservative is the most misued word in politics. It use to be one that was against deficets, nation building, excess federal spending,, and certainly seperation of church and state. We need a candidate that speaks to the middle because that is where most of us live, be he or she, black, white or in between. Unity 08 with the power of the internet has the ability to change the face of politics for the few and put the majority back in power. We all must ask ourselves, "what kind of world to we wish to live in". Howard Dean proved the power of the internet, as he came form no where to a major political figure. Unity 08 can put forth a candidate that can do that. My pledge will be to support whomever Unity 08 supports.
While watching C-Span and many other programs on the political situation in America, and frankly, I'm disgusted. It's terrible. Terrible.
Thursday/June/16/2006, Congress voted YES on leaving our troops in Iraq without an exit strategy. These noble men and women are being mercilessly slaughtered and what is Congress doing? Having a picnic(sp?). This is outrageous.
Rep. Slaughter (D) addressed this issue earlier this week saying that *-Everything in America is so surreal. We do not realize that 256,000 from Coalition Forces have died already in this war. We all sit in here, in this Congress and "discuss" useless "issues" that this leadership has produced while our men and women die in Iraq.-*
*(Note that I'm putting "-" marks in instead of quotation marks for lack of a quote).
I am a very open person and I would love to discuss such things on a more private level with people from around the country. My e-mail is shaggythexylomaster@yahoo.com
Feel free to e-mail me any time.
" but students on nearly 100 college campuses have already signed up "
Gee, why am I so underwelmed? Is it because the combined intellect of students from 1000 colleges are going to vote for a better government and society. I DON'T THINK SO! They are grant driven, tend to vote for massive spending programs, big government, and want to social engineer everybody thru tax codes. I think we should raise the voting age back to 21 where they are more likely be stake holders in the voting results.
Internet predators including--AOL, Verizon, Comcast, Tehran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, to name a few--whose financial/political/religious interests would be served if they could commandeer the internet--should be put on notice that this is the public domain. Make the perpetuation of a truly free internet a centerpiece of the centrist platform, lest this incredible vehicle of communicating authentic uncensored thoughts quickly and easily goes the way of television...into the hands of profiteers, power-mongers and regulators (of one stripe or another) who think they know better than you/us. Their motives may be different, but the damage to the global community would be the same, and cannot be tolerated.
See below among others:
http://www.outinleftfield.com/2006/03/keep-internet-free.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/10/opinion/edbildt.html
The time is now. Not tomorrow. WE the PEOPLE, MUST take our Democracy back. It's OUR duty. Corporations will come and go. Not us. Without us? The Corporations are nothing. Wake up your neighbor, friend, brother, sister, mother, father and lover! Either we move now? Or pay dearly, later.
And let all of our politicians know that we need to get the hell out of Iraq!
To me one of the most heart warming things about unity80; is, they want to reach out to the youth. It is you who are going to pay the price if we do not get this thing turned around. In one man's opinion; we must have statesmen not politicians in office and return to a Republic or at a minimum a non socialistic democracy. I'm a disabled veteran of WW-II with a constant prayer that the American citizen will rise up and again take control.
Yours for a better America and World.
Interesting? To me one of the most disappointing things about unity80; is, they want to reach out to the youth. It's hard to believe that a serious organization wants to pander to unexperienced youth to enhance its effect. I certainly do not want to put my governement much less than my future in the hands of crazed MTV generation. I beg that we dont go in that direction.
I want to thank the youth and our legislative leaders for responding to this blog and others like it... In the past few weeks our leaders have introduced new policy in many areas that directly reflects the comms taking place here and in other blogs like it... I have had numerous response from people regarding more in-depth information about the hitech reforms we must implement... More importantly the youth play a key role because we finally have solutions for them to consider, a positive direction forward with the applications of technologies not available until today, or wrongly applied. All we need now is implement properly, the key word "properly", not the way we are today!...For example: using institutional based servers holding application and files, rather than files being saved on each personal computers to resolve the security issue so that video conferencing can be implemented safely... getting rid of hard currency completely in conditions of Marshall law along with application of positive I.D. systems at checkpoints... and in fact the Iraq government now has a plans for gaining back country using these related hitech reforms of process that will prove quite effective... you wonder why George has been smiling lately... this great leader of freedom is finally getting sound advice and not from his cabinet - but from bloggers just like you! My father's day present is the American people and their willingness to change... all we need is each other... www.appyp.com/fix_main.html
"I think we should raise the voting age back to 21 where they are more likely be stake holders in the voting results."
Then should we also raise the age to die for your country? Anonymous, young people are arguably the greatest stake holders because they are the ones sent to war.
age is definitely no a measure of who is the "greatest stake holder."
As for the young in Iraq/Afghanistan they volunteered for military service unlike many in the 1960's. At the same time there are many who thought they had faithfully served who were called back into duty in their 40's and even 50's.
I did not get to vote when I was 18 but I remember being required to take a half year of government. Now those 18 can vote but the high school requirement is still only a half year of government.
Somehow I was never inspired by "boxers or briefs."
A lot of the possible candidates that I see recommended here seem to be those that posture and "sound good". Please, before recommending a candidate, check their voting record! Pay attention to what they actually do, not what they say.
I don't think that anyone coming out of Washington would have enough backing from a group such as this.
With a lot of the 'spin' the media is doing, I think the Republican party is trying to pick the Democratic candidate! Smart move on their part!
Robert, why don't you put up some names and convince the rest that is the "one". I'll listen to what you have to say, as well as others but you sound angry/frustrated and I can appreciate that but also remember the last 2 presidents did not come out of Washington.
Anonymous, I believe anyone old enough to wear a uniform is old enough to vote.
Why on earth if we don't trust the MTV generation to drink, why would we want to encourage them to vote. Think about it.
Anonymous,
if we don´t give the MTV crazed youth the responsiblity to vote or the outlet to be involved politically, how do you propose we inform the youth on government and enable them to be the next generation of political leaders (something that will inevitably happen once the non-crazed MTV generation retires or dies)
Sorry About my anger at the time of my last posting.
The only candidate I can think of right now is Tom Vilsack Gov. of Iowa. His record looks pretty good to me, so far. I know he did not do too well in a poll taken in Iowa. But there could be a lot of reasons for that!
I'd like to recommend a book by Naom Chomsky -- "Failed States" Quite an eye opener.
If you want to work on developing and influencing the direction of Unity08 rather than just reading the blog and maybe posting, there's a place for you right now.
Check out the Unity Supporters Forum where we're shooting for direct, conversational, person to person interaction rather than a choreographed "issue a day" with stars that get distributed by who knows what criteria. The Unity Supporters Forum already has 35 members and over 500 posts.
This is part of a larger effort to seed the net with Unity Supporting communities to raise awareness and coordinate actions out in the real world. The hub for these net communities is UnitySupporters.Com.
Alternately, if you've got a site or a community come talk to us and we'll give you a link on the hub page :-)
-Jennifer
Like middle income there seems to be a lot of various opinions on who is included.
I say if they are old enough to wear a uniform they are old enough to click a remote and go to C-SPAN or CNN or Fox for a little bit.
If they have time for TV they can learn to make choices by choosing what they watch.
If we have to cater to them how about Sesame Street for Young Voters.
I for one feel that we should find someone who best represents the spirit of Unity08. And then we should pass the word to use the write in portion of the ballot to get she or he elected. The count would be useful in reflecting the public feelings towards government and the legal test might be even more interesting - especially if we won.
Mark Warner
Russ Feingold
Michael Bloomberg
Lindsay Graham
Smart people that stand up for principles over partisanship (to a point).
Robert Egan suggested the name of Gov. Vilsack, Gov. of Iowa. On the surface----I did not know Gov. Vilsack---he seems a good possibility. Adopted, which gives him a certain character appeal, 53, a good age, law degree which means he is educated, and looks good, which lets face it, does make a difference. I have read a few of his posistions and he seems to be on some important issues. One would ask why he did not do well in a Iowa poll of possible candidates but Clinton came from no where, so he could also. I would be interested in other views on Vilsack. That is what makes Unity 08 a good idea, in that it gives us all a chance to voice opinions. Thanks Robert.
I would suggest in all seriousness that before anyone encourages anyone in the late teen, early 20's to vote to actually try to dialogue with a few. I have, and the results wasnt too pretty. Disgusting really of their lack of knowledge even of the basics of history, economics, and formal reasoning processes. Remember, this demographic gets its political incentives from the comedy channel, Leno, letterman .. etc. Its even amazing that we even allow them to walk around without helmets.
After reading the comments here, specifically about inviting youth to help change the system, I have to disagree. If we think we can rely on our next generation to bring solutions to our current mess, we are sadly delusional. My observations in business as well as social environments are very pessimistic indeed. Bad start initiative from the founders, but thats ok. I would suggest that we remove all references to youth and attract a more mature audience.
Some may surprise you. I'll grant they are often weak on wisdom and experience but often have enough enthusiasm, idealism and energy to help see things through.
Some in the "mature audience" are jaded and cynical.
I thought I was a conservative, that is until Terry Schiavo and the march to overturn roe v wade. And then came deficit spending and balance of payments. Now I shutter at the consequences. I'm still a conservative, but no longer a republican. Bush has led the republican party astray, into the muck of religion and an economic death nell. Even, on securing our borders, he failed us. Our entire government is in bureaucratic meltdown. No agency or department is performing even to minimum expectations. Unfortunately, even with all the problems with this administration, the democrats are worse, if that seems possible.
Being jaded and cynical is an entirely different beast than being realistic. I'm not sure if others are aware of the differential between what they are and what is expected of them and the competive global environment they will have to operate in. Granted we delt them some bad cards, but i dont even suspect they can order them correctly to try to play a decent hand.
First off, the MTV Generation is now in their 30's. Secondly, I am very disappointed to see that people would not want to embrace youth becoming active in politics and in the future of their country. Who is going to be running the place in 40-50 years? Us? No, I'm planning on being a) dead, or b) in a convalescent home waiting to die.
I say, welcome, read, learn, and become engaged in our democracy before it is too late.
I would be more inclined to agree with those comments that discouraged teen voting. Voting is not a game, or a learning experience. Before one votes, one should be aware of all the consequences of that vote in all aspects. The future of this nation and perhaps the free world is at stake. If the US fails, so does the world.
For starters, I really don't think we can call college aged adults the "MTV Generation." People in their thirties grew up watching mtv. While mtv has an impact, most of its programming is now geared towards 14 to 18 year olds. I really don't think most college aged students are glued to MTV.
We are definitely defined not by mtv but by the internet. That is our main source of information. People who assume that we are the MTV generation obviously are out of touch with the generation it chooses to label.
Blog readers may make the remarks that my generation is composed of idiots. I've got to tell you, I've met just as many stupid people that are my parents age than college students. More as a matter of fact. Stupid people are everywhere and every age. You can't tell me that when the baby boomer generation was in college that they were all informed, idealistic, intelligent activists.
My generation is comprised of people that haven't been given a reason to care. This isn't a fair fight. I honestly think that most are biding their time, waiting for the world to change or an outlet that they can participate in.
We are bombarded with what we should do. We are the first generation that has truly been in a position to where we are constantly showed what is wrong with the world, what will happen, what we should look like, what we should be. Thirty years ago, people got their dose of the world's problems on a neat hour long newsbroadcast. We get ours from 24/7 television, the internet, advertisements, billboards, etc. There is no escape. We are numb to the ourcries of what should be done. Especially when no one really knows the answer.
My generation just needs something new and clean to believe in. If something can offer them what they are seeking, they will follow it. We have been lost in the never ending debate, the promises of changes, the lofty words of encouragement. If this party can make an effort to just keep it real, I think people will be surprised what it will be able to accomplish.