Recently, I met a 13 year old girl named Leah. Cheerfully helping to fold 500 copies of SOUND, she mentioned that she had committed to reducing her “ecological footprint” by walking to her school and recreational activities. My heart danced. Thirteen years old. Actively assisting a community project to address social and environmental balance and taking specific steps in her own life to tread more lightly. Need a renewal of faith? Spend four minutes with your local teenager.
It had been awhile since I’d spent any time with one myself. Years of severe bullying throughout high school left me cautious. Leah’s presence shifted my wariness enough that three days later, at the Walk for Peace, Social Justice and the Environment, I felt delighted to be introduced to two more teenagers. Burkleigh and Kaleigh are working within their high schools to build a school in Sierra Leone. When presented with a copy of SOUND, they didn’t miss a beat before asking: “How can we get involved?”
Later, while reflecting on the Walk, a long-forgotten image leaped into my mind. Me at fourteen years of age, at Kamloops’ Walk for Peace, emboldened by a love for justice just barely outweighing my profound shyness, stepping up to a microphone for the first time in my life. I told the audience that some friends and I had formed a group called COT, both an acronym of “Citizens of Tomorrow” and an allusion to the feeling we had of being stuck living with the consequences of the activities of those generations that had “paved paradise”.
I don’t imagine that many adults saw me as “idealistic” and that they resigned themselves to waiting out this “adolescent phase”. I know I don’t imagine it because they told me as much. School teachers, especially, insisted that my interest was based on youthful ignorance and optimism. Granted, I’m not “old” yet, but twenty-one years have passed, and I’m still at the march, still speaking out, still working every angle to make peace and justice a reality. Without doubt, I have become weary and disallusioned at points –and certainly I still have a lot to learn –but I’m also still here.
Twenty-one years after announcing COT to the Walk’s audience, I remember the hope we held, the future we saw. And of course, my friends and I have indeed become the Citizens of Tomorrow. We are the ones now voting, organizing, weighing out the environmental implications of having children of our own, contemplating how to achieve business ends with least impact, designing our homes for a gentler footprint. And in 5, 10 and 21 years, Leah and Burkleigh and Kaleigh will also. These “Citizens of Tomorrow” (who, really, are citizens already today), will be producing the newsletters, writing the songs, leading the cities.
We need to recognize, embrace, support, and encourage these youth. We need to hear them. We need to recognize their intelligence, energy and focus. We need to create opportunities for them or, better yet, help them to create opportunities for themselves. We need to clear the path then get out of the way. Teenagers are aware, strong, and capable. They see what is taking place around them. They have opinions and, very importantly, ideas. Not yet shackled by endless bizarre policies, their minds flow freely, imaginatively, creatively. Not yet wearied by copious political barriers, their minds naturally “think outside the box”, providing both simple and complex solutions to the challenges we all face.
We’ve invited Leah, Burkleigh and Kaleigh to write for SOUND. We recognize that high school students are super busy people with lots on their plate and decent doses of stress. Accordingly, our goal is not to weigh them down with additional “assignments”, but to simply hear them. What are they doing? What concerns do they hold and what is helping them bring hope and optimism to those issues? How can we pave for them, not another mental parking lot, but a path to empowerment and freedom?
Action: If you are a teenager, tell us in 25-400 words what an adult can do to help you feel hopeful about the environment or justice.
