I Am America and So Can You!
I knew this kid in high school who played a bunch of D’n'D, always won at Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments, and was in Model Congress. Through an incredible display of imagination and skilled manipulation of his peers - crafts no doubt perfected during his other hobbies – he ended up drafting a bill to mandate a new safety policy in all public schools. The bill was successfully passed in the Model Congress Championship, and while that isn’t the same as D.C., he’s now at Harvard, so that must count for something.
The point is, you’re never too young to be writing the policies that affect your life. Really, look at these 10 policies written by your peers. These are actually legitimate solutions to legitimately troubling issues, and if these policies don’t end up on Capitol Hill, the kids who wrote them certainly will. How do you get in on the action? Check out the first meeting of the Roosevelt Campus Network. Lemme riff for a second:
The Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, a national student initiative, engages young people in a unique form of progressive activism that empowers them as leaders and promotes their ideas for change. [...] students identify pressing issues facing their towns, counties and states. Taking advantage of the unique resources on their college campuses, they engage in policy research and writing and then connect the fruits of that research to the political process, delivering sound, progressive proposals to policymakers and advocacy groups.
In other words, you learn how to make your pet political issues stand a chance against the big, bad, old white men of the current political system. Dope. See that part about “taking advantage of the unique resources on college campuses”? That’s the moneyshot.
Don’t despair kiddies!
