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I just spent the past week visiting several colleges--Auburn, theUniversity of Mississippi, Lake Forest and Williams--and I canreport that the more I am around this generation of collegestudents, the more I am both baffled and impressed.
I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic andidealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so muchless radical and politically engaged than they need to be.
One of the things I feared most after 9/11—that my daughterswould not be able to travel the world with the same carefree attitudemy wife and I did at their age-has not come to pass.
Whether it was at Ole Miss or Williams or my alma mater,Brandeis, college students today are not only going abroad to studyin record numbers, but they are also going abroad to build homes forthe poor in EI Salvador in record numbers or volunteering at AIDSclinics in record numbers. Not only has terrorism not deterred themfrom traveling, they are rolling up their sleeves and diving in deeperthan ever.
The Iraq war may be a mess, but I noticed at Auburn and Ole Missmore than a few young men and women proudly wearing their R.O.T.C.uniforms. Many of those not going abroad have channeled theirnational service impulses into increasingly popularprograms at home like "Teach for America," whichhas become to this generation what the Peace Corpswas to mine.
It’s for all these reasons that I’ve been calling them"Generation Q"—the Quiet Americans, in the bestsense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, athome and abroad.
But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, forits own good, and for thecountry’s own good. Whenthink of the huge budget deficit, Social Security deficit andecological deficit that our generation is leaving thisgeneration, if they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re justnot paying attention. And we’ll just keep piling it on them.
There is a good chance that members of Generation Q willspend their entire adult lives digging out from the deficitsthat we—the "Greediest Generation," epitomized by GeorgeW.Bush—are leaving them?
When I was visiting my daughter at her college, sheasked me about a terrifying story that ran in this newspaperon Oct. 2, reporting that the Arctic ice cap was melting "toan extent unparalleled in a century or more" —and that theentire Arctic system appears to be "heading toward a new,more watery state" likely triggered by "human-causedglobal warming."
"What happened to that Arctic story, Dad?" my daughterasked me. How could the news media just report one day thatthe Arctic ice was melting far faster than any modelspredicted "and then the story just disappeared?" Why weren’tany of the candidates talking about it?Didn’t they understand:this has become the big issue on campuses?
No, they don’t seem to understand. They seem to be toobusy raising money or buying votes with subsidies for ethanol farmers in Iowa.The candidates could actually use agood kick in the pants on this point. But where is it going tocome from?
Generation Q would be doing itself a favor，andAmerica a favor,if it demanded from every candidatewho comes on campus answers to three questions：Whatis your plan for mitigating climate change?What is yourplan for reforming Sodal Security?What is your plan fordealing with the deficit?
America needs a io1t of the idealism，actiVism andOUtrage(it must be in there)of Generation Q．That’swhat twentysomethings are for—to 1ight a fire under thecolintry．But they can’t e-mail it in，and an online petitionor a mouse click for carbon neutraIity won’t CUt it．Theyhave to get organized in a way that will force pohticiansto Pay attention rather than just patronize them．
Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t changethe world by asking people to join their Facebookcrusades or to download their platforms．ActiVism can only be uPloaded，the old—fashioned way--by youngVOters speaking truth to power,face to face，in bignumbers，on campuses or the Washington Mall．virtualpolitics is just that--virtual．
Maybe that’s why what impressed me most on my brief college swing was actually a statue—the life—size statue ofJameg Meredith at the University of Mississippi．Meredithwas the first African-American to be admitted to ole Missin 1962．The Meredith bronze is posed as if he is stridingtoward a taU ljruestone archway.re-enacting his fateful steponto the then-segregated campus-defying a violent，angrymob and protected by theNational Guard．
Above the archwaV，carvedinto the stone，is the word"Colirage"．That is what realactivism looks like．There is nosubstitute．
I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic andidealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so muchless radical and politically engaged than they need to be.
One of the things I feared most after 9/11—that my daughterswould not be able to travel the world with the same carefree attitudemy wife and I did at their age-has not come to pass.
Whether it was at Ole Miss or Williams or my alma mater,Brandeis, college students today are not only going abroad to studyin record numbers, but they are also going abroad to build homes forthe poor in EI Salvador in record numbers or volunteering at AIDSclinics in record numbers. Not only has terrorism not deterred themfrom traveling, they are rolling up their sleeves and diving in deeperthan ever.
The Iraq war may be a mess, but I noticed at Auburn and Ole Missmore than a few young men and women proudly wearing their R.O.T.C.uniforms. Many of those not going abroad have channeled theirnational service impulses into increasingly popularprograms at home like "Teach for America," whichhas become to this generation what the Peace Corpswas to mine.
It’s for all these reasons that I’ve been calling them"Generation Q"—the Quiet Americans, in the bestsense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, athome and abroad.
But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, forits own good, and for thecountry’s own good. Whenthink of the huge budget deficit, Social Security deficit andecological deficit that our generation is leaving thisgeneration, if they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re justnot paying attention. And we’ll just keep piling it on them.
There is a good chance that members of Generation Q willspend their entire adult lives digging out from the deficitsthat we—the "Greediest Generation," epitomized by GeorgeW.Bush—are leaving them?
When I was visiting my daughter at her college, sheasked me about a terrifying story that ran in this newspaperon Oct. 2, reporting that the Arctic ice cap was melting "toan extent unparalleled in a century or more" —and that theentire Arctic system appears to be "heading toward a new,more watery state" likely triggered by "human-causedglobal warming."
"What happened to that Arctic story, Dad?" my daughterasked me. How could the news media just report one day thatthe Arctic ice was melting far faster than any modelspredicted "and then the story just disappeared?" Why weren’tany of the candidates talking about it?Didn’t they understand:this has become the big issue on campuses?
No, they don’t seem to understand. They seem to be toobusy raising money or buying votes with subsidies for ethanol farmers in Iowa.The candidates could actually use agood kick in the pants on this point. But where is it going tocome from?
Generation Q would be doing itself a favor，andAmerica a favor,if it demanded from every candidatewho comes on campus answers to three questions：Whatis your plan for mitigating climate change?What is yourplan for reforming Sodal Security?What is your plan fordealing with the deficit?
America needs a io1t of the idealism，actiVism andOUtrage(it must be in there)of Generation Q．That’swhat twentysomethings are for—to 1ight a fire under thecolintry．But they can’t e-mail it in，and an online petitionor a mouse click for carbon neutraIity won’t CUt it．Theyhave to get organized in a way that will force pohticiansto Pay attention rather than just patronize them．
Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t changethe world by asking people to join their Facebookcrusades or to download their platforms．ActiVism can only be uPloaded，the old—fashioned way--by youngVOters speaking truth to power,face to face，in bignumbers，on campuses or the Washington Mall．virtualpolitics is just that--virtual．
Maybe that’s why what impressed me most on my brief college swing was actually a statue—the life—size statue ofJameg Meredith at the University of Mississippi．Meredithwas the first African-American to be admitted to ole Missin 1962．The Meredith bronze is posed as if he is stridingtoward a taU ljruestone archway.re-enacting his fateful steponto the then-segregated campus-defying a violent，angrymob and protected by theNational Guard．
Above the archwaV，carvedinto the stone，is the word"Colirage"．That is what realactivism looks like．There is nosubstitute．