Learning the tools of the Trade

Youth Leadership School- Provided by The Leadership Institute 

2 days and nights, $30 (meals included)
The Leadership Institute’s flagship school, nicknamed “the boot camp of politics,” provides you with effective techniques to organize and lead mass based youth efforts for candidates and causes of your choice.

The Youth Leadership School has launched more successful political careers than any other Leadership Institute training program.

Topics covered include:

• Building an effective student organization
• Getting out the vote
• Earned media (favorable publicity)
• Developing a public relations strategy
• Launching a successful career in politics

This school is held on college campuses across the country and at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

October 2-3 at The University of Washington

Register Here

The Death of the American Dream

Has the American dream change? Are we still as free as we once were? Or perhaps our future is slipping away like so many of our leaders are leading us to believe. The majority of the fears and anxieties about our future stems from the Sub-prime mortgage crash, and the recession that followed. With high unemployment, and general fear of the economy, is the American dream still obtainable? You hear the Right proclaiming the need to cut back on taxation and regulation of our nations businesses and economic structure. The Left fight to further control the factors that led to this economic situation in order to, in there few, give the American dream to everyone. But who is right? Or is it already to late.

As one of my previous posts stated my generation feels that so much of our world is beyond our control and they feel that success is more of a roll of the dice then the reward of hard work and elbow grease. Why would we care about what its beyond our control? Why believe in the American dream if we are not masters of our own fate? In college and in high school I had the view that we are all victims constantly pounded into my head. You will never go to college unless you went to a rich school they said, you will only be successful if your born into the right family and right race. There once was the view that we we're all created equal, but know the common view is that we are all made equal, by the government or other organizations. If that is true then the American dream is indeed dead. For we are no longer captains of our fate.  "A 30-year-old recent law school graduate said he had made use of student loans to go back to school in order to pursue a career in public service. Now he can't even pay the interest payment on those loans now."  Washington Post 
Can the American dream once again be realized? Will our generation one again recapture the hope and the pride that once was the American dream? 

Defining the American Dream,

What is the American Dream? Is it a high payed job? A three car garage? Is it three hots and cot, with a family in tow? People define what the American dream is with about as much consistency as how they define what an American is. The idea of "losing the America Dream" has been an underlying theme in the media of late. From the concerns towards the national debt, and to the campaign pledges from the left and the right, the preservation of the American dream seems to be the underline theme from all sides of the political spectrum.
But the question arises, what is the American Dream? C.N.B.C. had a town hall not to long ago with Obama and people from the public. A recent college graduated at the town hall asked the President a very serious question.

"Like a lot of people in my generation, I was really inspired by you and by your campaign and message that you brought, and that inspiration is dying away," he said. "It feels like the American dream is not attainable to a lot of us." Washington Post

But what is the American dream?  From my education and research as a history major, the American Dream is : the idea that we control our fate and that no matter our start in life
we can define its outcome. The American dream is also about redemption and the idea that you can create yourself and redefine yourself as you so decide. Which is why America has been the immigration destination for the world sense its creation.  This idea of redemption and creation of the self  leads to the diversity in the definitions of what a "American" is.  So the question arises are we as Americans no longer able to live out that dream? Are we no longer able to decide the outcome of our lives?

The Curse of a Generation

"Why don't the youth vote?" people have asked me. "Don't they care about their future?"... The answers to those questions are much simpler than one would like to think. Apathy, hopelessness, and lack of drive contribute to the view that is readily believed by the people of my generation. The view that Our future is beyond our control, and thus useless to worry about.

I'm 21, a junior in college and fully employed. This odd situation has given me an unique view into my own life and the people around me. I work 40hours a week and study for my classes in my free time. I wasn't always this driven, i remember growing up when my only aspiration was to play PlayStation 2, and play soccer. I had lofty goals about my future from time to time. When people asked me what i wanted to be when i was older i said things like "I want to be a doctor or an engineer or a rock star." but in the end of the day i didn't know nor did i have any care to know. Later on in my life i was confronted with live changing situations that helped put my life in prospective and helped me establish a footing for where i wanted to go in life but everyone is not so lucky.

I grew up in the no kid left behind, everyone succeeds, education system. My motivation in class was to keep playing sports and pass the exams. But i never strove for some higher calling or purpose. Looking back to my high school experience three years ago i know see how poor and miss guided much of my education was. It was more of a grown up daycare than an education facility. So its no surprise when I read about higher dropout rates or decline in academic test scores. Why would the students care? Why don't people in my age bracket "care" about their future? Well it's quite simple, we were raised in padded rooms where our hands were tied and we were all made out to be the same. We were never given the opportunities to truly fail and find out what in life is truly important. Which goes to point out the biggest problem to our nation, the curse of my generation. The view that the world is beyond our control, that success is more of a roll of the dice then the reward of hard work and elbow grease. Why would we care about what its beyond our control....