As if to underscore the point I made in the previous post about young people and their commitment to fairness and the betterment of life, this past week we witnessed The 16 year old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, crying out at the United Nations, "Let us pick up our books and our pens..they are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution."
After being savagely shot in the head by Taliban militants as she went to school with other girls, she noted that, "They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed..out of that silence came thousands of voices...Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born..."
There seems to be a tipping point where an act goes so far as to have reverse consequences. While we wait for that to happen in this country with legislation for gun control, compassion for the poor, sick, elderly and unemployed, the impact of social media, the internet, the cell phone to build community is, in the hands of the young, potent tools to promote and bring about needed change. And, by which the voices such as Malala's can resonate.
The antediluvians in Congress, in the Taliban, in the other power structures of this world are not immortal, nor invincible. Hubris goes before a downfall; violence and power abuses create a temporary vacuum which is forcefully filled with positive counter-action. People will just, finally, not put up "with it." (Neither authoritarianism, nor terrorism.)
The unintimidated young are impatient.
Maybe, it's time for an internet equivalent of a peaceful "sit-in protest." The young have the technical skills to pull it off. They also know how to go into action instead of waiting for the grownups to tell them how and what to do.
Voter registration, education financing, immigration reform, aid to the helpless and less fortunate, reducing waste, recycling, organic gardening, alternative transportation, inter-cultural friendships, respect for Humanity and for our fellow Animals, elimination of war: plenty of agenda for the children born in the twenty-first century.