To the Editor:

As a generation of young people we have been among the loudest politically in history. This is partly because of the tools we have been given to make our voices heard, but it is also connected to the way political issues regarding our lives and futures have been mishandled. When we didn’t feel safe in our schools and were (are) concerned about the health of the planet, we walked out of class. When we saw the police murdering innocent Black Americans in the streets and in their homes, we took to those streets. These issues have a direct impact on our wellbeing in the here and now, but also down the line. And for whatever reason it felt as if no one in power saw them as a priority. So we made noise. A lot of it.

Now, we are staring down the most pivotal moment in our young political lives. I was snapped to attention by the 2016 election, as I am sure many others were as the vision for America that was elected into office was not one that a lot of us felt represented who we were. The younger generation has been a strong voice against this administration, but this is the first time for a lot of us that we can put that voice towards concrete action. We have a chance here to make our presence felt.

They want us to stay home. They want us to be another generation that couldn’t be bothered. They want us to allow them to continue to shape our futures without our say in the matter. We shouldn’t let them. We can’t let them, because the status quo that we are currently operating at is not good enough.

I know that many of us are discouraged by the way things have gone in the past and that at times it seems as if the institutions that our nation runs on are so flawed and so slow that nothing we do as voters matters. However, that does not mean we should abandon them. The only way those structures improve is through our participation in them. Only after we have shown our active engagement can we demand better of these powers that are supposed to serve us. We have an opportunity to show those in charge that the noise that we have been making for these past four years meant something. It wasn’t just virtue signaling or an Instagram post, but rather a warning. That we were listening. That we were not going to forget when election time came.

And now is the time to make that step from agitators to change-makers, from a voice to a force. Those in power have seemingly given up on a brighter future, resigned to the gridlock of Washington. And in the face of such pessimism, it is our job, fueled by a fire of hope, to right the course and bring us one step closer to a better tomorrow, to a better America.

John Godino

1 Dylan Drive, Newtown October 19, 2020