The end of the beginning...

Youth06. It’s a cool name, a good idea, and an awesome initiative. It suggests that we, the youngest generation of American voters, can make anyone who runs for office this year accountable to us.

We held a conference call yesterday, a few of our newest members got a chance to talk to other Mobilizers about their plans for the fall: galvanizing the youth vote, building coalitions, and getting in contact with the people who want our votes.

The ballot box is great, it’s the symbol of our democracy and of our rights, but it is only a symbol. Elections don’t happen every day, and campaigns only run for a few months. We need a movement that makes constant progress.

Youth06 is fifty teams strong, it is pockets of civically minded youths uniting under one name, once concept, and many goals. Some of us want to make college scholarships more competitive, others want to unionize workers, still more fight for tuition remission: this is truly an explosion of youth empowerment.

Many of our most active Mobilizers are actively pursuing a noble cause: the completion of another academic school year. For some, it will be for the last time–for others, the fall will bring the beginnings of a college career.

The fall will bring something to all of us, though: a chance ignite a flame, one that flared in 2004, when we saw the biggest surge of youth voters in over a decade. We have goals in 06, things we would like to see changed, and those changes are enhanced by one thing: the notion that we will actualize our desires, that we will flex our political muscle. There is a lot to be excited about, and there is so much more to do.

Visit www.mobilize.org/youth06 to read more, or contact Maya Enista (at maya@mobilize.org) if you want to DO more.

DP