The Call

I. Introduction

We are the people of this generation, the sons and the daughters of one of the most active generations that this nation has ever seen. We have been bred in a world where prosperity reigns, where the Cold War has ended, where the European Union is emerging, and where the new threats come from terrorists and rogue states of the third world. We have inherited a world in which advancements have been made, and progress has come-but both are receding before the face of a new wave of apathy and complacency.
When we were young, we saw the heights of 1980s, the rise of conservative forces, and of liberals who began backing away from more progressive and proactive positions. We saw the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, but equally so, we saw the rise of genocide in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda, and in a host of other locations across the world.
We once again "look uncomfortably to the world we inherit," but we are divided, and in many cases, one could say that the situation of today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is far graver then it was in August of 1962. We have also witnessed disturbing trends across the board. In presidential elections, about half of those registered to vote exercise their right. The figures are even less for congressional, state, and local elections. At the same time, our world has grown ever smaller. The so-called "Modern" age is shifting into the "Post-Modern" age, where the free-flow of information is of primary importance. We have witnessed the marvels of modern science and technology in the form of the internet, but we have also witnessed the failure of nuclear non-proliferation. We saw a blatant and premeditated attack on our country by terrorists, that shattered our belief that the evils and injustices perpetuated in other areas of the globe, could not touch us.
In spite of all these trends, the vision of participatory democracy has not changed. It may have been silenced, but it has not changed. More of our generation then ever before have become involved in activism, and we have our predecessors to thank for this. However, to say that all our problems have been solved is a far cry from the very hard truth-the reality that is our situation. More than ever before, our government has become irresponsive to our needs. Politicians are cast as liars and scoundrels, people motivated by the desire to win an election, then by the sincerity of their convictions and political beliefs. The distinctions that marked Republicans and Democrats, at times, barely exists. At the same time, alternative voices in the form of independent candidates and third parties, are unable to compete successfully against the two major parties, because they cannot tap into the same vast resources of wealth that the others can. We have seen the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement under threat, and we have also seen the stagnancy of our resolve to fight injustice wherever it maybe. It lives in our own backyards, and permeates the national body-politic. At the same time, the rise of special-interest groups has further complicated matters, and we now face a nation in which a wide-array of injustices are perpetuated and maintained as the status quo by the inactivity and irresponsiveness of our elected officials.
We seek a nation and indeed a world based on concepts that embrace reform, active participation on the part of citizenry, and a more responsive government. We believe that the current apathetic mood among our fellow citizens must be changed before major issues are left unsolvable. Nothing is impossible, if people are willing to work for and believe firmly in an idea, but in this day and age, this necessary first step is not a certainty.
Any movement for change, cannot be exclusively in the hands of one group or another, all issues and injustices ultimately affect the entire society, and therefore, it lies in everyone's hands to do what is right. We cannot simply just stand here while the world passes us by, and we cannot simply allow ourselves to ignore certain cold hard truths about our nation and our government. We cannot simply become embroiled in our own apathy and cynicism, in our own self-centered concerns-and we cannot allow ourselves to be caught up in ineffective political and societal infighting, that hampers most attempts at reform and revolutionary change.
This government is based on the principles that "all men are created equal," and it is based on the Constitution which further expounds and guarantees our rights as citizens. Yet, on so many levels: our government, our nation, and our society, do not live up to the very principles we supposedly hold dear, and extol. We seek nothing less then for our nation to truly stand tall and proud. We want it to live up to its high and noble ideals. For this we will dedicate ourselves and our lives if need be.

II. Life in the Underground and the State of Affairs of our Nation

Whatever remains of the New Left has been splintered, and while it is true that there are more activists today than in previous decades, the fact of the matter is that we are divided. We have all been working so hard, we have been sowing the seeds of new change, but all of this is being accomplished underground. We have not as of yet, built up the strength or the constituency to tackle some of the most daunting problems that continue to plague our nation. In short, we spend our lives underground. No, not repressed directly, but we are not strong enough or willing enough it seems to unite for the betterment of society and directly challenge the injustices of our nation.
The state of affairs has been deteriorating for quite some time, and though it is not too late, there are many trends that will prove to be unsettling:

1. Ghettoization and Economic Segregation: What good is political and civil equality, if many segments of society now face a more subtle form of segregation—one in which they are forced into ghettos, usually populated by minorities, who are trapped and in many cases cannot in spite of their efforts to the contrary, liberate themselves from their impoverished and unequal conditions. Where is the government? Where are the protesters? Where are the reformers? Where are the visionaries? These are our people, and these are the people who must be give a fair shot, and they are constantly, on a daily basis, denied these chances. Rather then having an equal opportunity and a chance at a better life, they have been locked in an ever-growing system of ghettos within our cities.

2. Education: Perhaps the most important cornerstone of our society is in dire need of reform. Throughout the nation, our public education systems are vastly unequal, and vastly under-funded. The bulk of the finances for public education come from the State and local levels, with something in the range of 7.2% of the funds coming from the federal government. Though we have seen the opportunities of the No Child Left Behind Act and other pieces of legislation, there is still a massive need for true reform, and an examination of the entire public education system. If the government puts its money where its mouth is, then we wouldn’t have students having books that are falling apart, or elected school officials pocketing money that is supposed to be going to the schools. It is an outrage that no one has successfully tackled this daunting and crucial issue.

3. Civil Rights: On some fronts the move in favor of civil rights has been stalled. But on others, especially that of the gay/lesbian movement toward marriage, milestones are being made on a daily basis. However, our nation cannot stand idly while those in power seek to write segregation and inequality into State Constitutions and indeed into the U.S. Constitution. Everyone in this nation, is entitled to the equal protection of their rights to “life, liberty, and property” with due process of the law. No one has the right to say that because a man is in love with another man, he cannot marry, and no one has the right to put that into our constitution. No one has the right to restore and or maintain any kind of inequality or segregation, as has been the case in recent years.

4. War and Peace: Where has the peace movement gone? Do we not see the evils of war in general, or must all idealism be viewed with such contempt? We will not stand for war, it is illegal, it is unnecessary, and it is wrong. And if war must be fought, it does not guarantee a blank check for those with the power to levy war, just because terrorism has run rampant. Our men and women are dying constantly, we see the newspaper’s everyday, and no one gives a damn!

5. Environment: The vast resources of our nation and the world are being destroyed and used up, without regard to the consequences, and the situation grows even worse as time progresses. Do we not see what is happening? Do we even care? We risk losing animal life and more importantly, we risking losing plants that sustain our life, and we risking losing pristine areas of nature for the next generation. Are we willing to allow that to happen?

There are many problems, more than these, but ultimately, these issues are tied together. We are at fault, if we remain complacent and apathetic. Only through unity can we attain our goals.

III. Values

We hold that a system of values is crucial to any society. Although humanity, has in the past, conducted itself in a violent manner, we believe in the goodness and potential of all humans. Men and women alike are possessed with the ability to change their world for the better, and to make reasonable decisions, on the basis of sound logic. Human beings have a responsibility to each other and to themselves. With great freedom comes ever greater responsibility.
“In suggesting social goals and values, therefore, we are aware of entering a sphere of some disrepute. Perhaps matured by the past, we have no formulas, no closed theories--but that does not mean values are beyond discussion and tentative determination. A first task of any social movement is to convince people that the search for orienting theories and the creation of human values is complex but worthwhile. We are aware that to avoid platitudes we must analyze the concrete conditions of social order. But to direct such an analysis we must use the guideposts of basic principles. Our own social values involve conceptions of human beings, human relationships, and social systems.
We regard men and women as infinitely precious and possessed of unfulfilled capacities for reason, freedom, and love. In affirming these principles we are aware of countering perhaps the dominant conceptions of man in the twentieth century: that he is a thing to be manipulated, and that he is inherently incapable of directing his own affairs. We oppose the depersonalization that reduces human being to the status of things—if anything, the brutalities of the twentieth century teach that means and ends are intimately related, that vague appeals to ‘posterity’ cannot justify the mutilations of the present. We oppose, too, the doctrine of human incompetence because it rests essentially on the modern fact that men have been ‘competently’ manipulated into incompetence—we see little reason why men cannot meet with increasing the skill the complexities and responsibilities of their situation, if society is organized not for minority, but for majority, participation in decision-making.
Men have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity. It is this potential that we regard as crucial and to which we appeal, not to the human potentiality for violence, unreason, and submission to authority. The goal of man and society should be human independence: a concern not with image of popularity but with finding a meaning in life that is personally authentic; a quality of mind not compulsively driven by a sense of powerlessness, nor one which unthinkingly adopts status values, nor one which represses all threats to its habits, but one which has full, spontaneous access to present and past experiences, one which easily unites the fragmented parts of personal history, one which openly faces problems which are troubling and unresolved; one with an intuitive awareness of possibilities, an active sense of curiosity, an ability and willingness to learn.
This kind of independence does not mean egotistic individualism—the object is not to have one's way so much as it is to have a way that is one's own. Nor do we deify man—we merely have faith in his potential.
Human relationships should involve fraternity and honesty. Human interdependence is contemporary fact; human brotherhood must be willed, however, as a condition of future survival and as the most appropriate form of social relations. Personal links between man and man are needed, especially to go beyond the partial and fragmentary bonds of function that bind men only as worker to worker, employer to employee, teacher to student, American to Russian, black to white, and so on.
Loneliness, estrangement, isolation describe the vast distance between man and man today. These dominant tendencies cannot be overcome by better personnel management, nor by improved gadgets, but only when a love of man overcomes the idolatrous worship of things by man. As the individualism we affirm is not egoism, the selflessness we affirm is not self-elimination. On the contrary, we believe in generosity of a kind that imprints one's unique individual qualities in the relation to other men, and to all human activity. Further, to dislike isolation is not to favor the abolition of privacy; the latter differs from isolation in that it occurs or is abolished according to individual will.
We would replace power rooted in possession, privilege, or circumstance by power and uniqueness rooted in love, reflectiveness, reason, and creativity. As a social system we seek the establishment of a democracy of individual participation, governed by two central aims: that the individual share in those social decisions determining the quality and direction of his life; that society be organized to encourage independence in men and provide the media for their common participation.
In a participatory democracy, the political life would be based in several root principles: that decision-making of basic social consequence be carried on by public groupings;
that politics be seen positively, as the art of collectively creating an acceptable pattern of social relations;
that politics has the function of bringing people out of isolation and into community, thus being a necessary, though not sufficient, means of finding meaning in personal life;
that the political order should serve to clarify problems in a way instrumental to their solution; it should provide outlets for the expression of personal grievance and aspiration; opposing views should be organized so as to illuminate choices and facilitate the attainment of goals; channels should be commonly available to relate men to knowledge and to power so that private problems--from bad recreation facilities to personal alienation--are formulated as general issues.
The economic sphere would have as its basis the principles:
that work should involve incentives worthier than money or survival. It should be educative, not stultifying; creative, not mechanical; self-directed, not manipulated, encouraging independence, a respect for others, a sense of dignity, and a willingness to accept social responsibility, since it is this experience that has crucial influence on habits, perceptions and individual ethics;
that the economic experience is so personally decisive that the individual must share in its full determination;
that the economy itself is of such social importance that its major resources and means of production should be open to democratic participation and subject to democratic social regulation.
Like the political and economic ones, major social institutions--cultural, educational, rehabilitative, and others--should be generally organized with the well-being and dignity of man as the essential measure of success.
In social change or interchange, we find violence to be abhorrent because it requires generally the transformation of the target, be it a human being or a community of people, into a depersonalized object of hate. It is imperative that the means of violence be abolished and the institutions--local, national, international--that encourage non-violence as a condition of conflict be developed.
These are our central values, in skeletal form. It remains vital to understand their denial or attainment in the context of the modern world.”

IV. The Outcry

Ours is a generation that has come onto the scene at the beginning of a new century. We have grown up with the realities of mass-media, of scandals, of violence—and the overarching concept that is—the world at large. We are more educated and familiar with our surroundings then ever before, and yet, much injustice remains. We are Americans, who have seen the devastation of terrorism, in the form of the attacks on September 11, 2001. We have seen the bursting of economic bubbles, the destruction of hopes and dreams, and the mass of unfulfilled promises made by politicians who seem simply not to care any longer.
We look onto this world with mixed feelings. We are divided and scattered, the youth of a nation, the promise of a better future, but what does that all mean? It means that no longer can America simply continue to proclaim itself the most free notion, unless it means to truly back that statement with action, and with truth.
We are the youth of the nation we are the reformers of old, the activists of the modern world, the bearers of a new torch for a new generation. And we will be guided by the basis of our very government, and we will seek to champion the rights of any in this nation and beyond this nation till the following truths are sure steadfast realities:


These are what we hold dear:

I. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and all women are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

II. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

We believe that we as students have a duty to reform, change, and restructure any and every injustice that threatens the very nature of this country. We are the students and the youth of the United States of America. This is a nation founded upon fraternity, equality, liberty, and justice for all. This is supposed to be a nation where the government is run by, for, and of the people. And yet all of this is a pure fallacy, if segregation remains, if a good education is not guaranteed for all, and if injustice after cruel injustice is levied against our people and those in the larger world. Central to this, is the ever-present fact that our government has grown to become less responsive to the needs and desires of the people. The politicians are labeled as liars, and many are corrupt beyond belief.
Throughout history, movements of reform have come and gone, polarizing the nation and breeding equally reactionary forces branding many legitimate reformers as “radicals,” “un-American,” “communists,” or in this day in age “un-patriotic” and still worse “terrorists.” We live in a world that, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, has yet to learn from previous mistakes. And no one seems to care. Gone are the rabble-rousers in our country. Where are the “muckrakers”? Where are those “pinkos ” and “radicals”? Where are those young peace-loving and idealistic student activists? Where has the urge for reform gone?
We are students and we are men and women. But what good is that, if people are dying overseas? What good is that, if so many are not free? What good is that, if our nation cannot see the problems it faces? Now, there those who would say that there are no problems—that America guarantees to all its citizens the rights of "life, liberty, and property." Well, go to the ghettos of Patterson, New Jersey. They'll sing a different tune. Go to wherever the poor live. They too, will sing a different tune. Go to wherever an American finds injustice—and you'll find a different tune. To say that all of our problems have been fixed, is an outright delusion—a lie, by which we can accept our own conformity and apathy.

Students are the supposed to be “our future”—the promise and potential of a new generation, dedicated to fulfilling the greatest ideals of this, our nation. Too many have been consumed by other concerns. Who will win the election? Who is working on so-and-so’s campaign? Who is struggling to hold a job? Who is struggling to feed a family? Who could care less about who wins the presidential election or not? It doesn’t matter, my vote doesn’t count. It all sounds familiar. This is the continual and growing apathy of our nation. Where is our willingness to fight for what is right? To take even the smallest of causes and secure justice and freedom for those in need, is that not noble? Is that not what we as Americans stand for?

One of the founding members of Students for a Democratic Society, Tom Hayden, wrote from a jail cell while on the "Freedom Rides" in the South saying:

"Human waste, I thought, is not our social legacy only because of the [African-American]—how many of our people sleep in the woods or, where there are no woods, in and around the viaducts and the warehouses and even the ditches, or in the foul rooms of 101st Street, or in some private words of their own?"

He stayed in jail, fighting for equality for African-Americans, he and others like him, had something unique, maybe it was because they were the first college students, the first generation of Americans to go through college and see what the real-world was like, that it wasn't the perfect 50's television series world they had been led to believe. Whatever it was, hundreds of thousands of students across the country were lit by the fire of idealism, ideas of freedom, of civil equality, ideas of reform...and it drove them to the streets where they protested, to the ghettos where they languished, to the very hearts of people across the nation.
What happened to all of this? Now there are no more problems, right? All is rosy, and even if there are problems, they have been here and they cannot be changed, we can't do anything, right? This is all the cynical apathetic garbage I hear around me. Surrounded by politicians who promise much but never seem to deliver, all this while the jobless and impoverished abound, while people can't get the most basic necessities, where people are lost, uneducated, unable to pay for treatments...people all over, not just in our nation, are suffering daily, and it seems as if no one cares.
WE CARE. We don't want to see that anymore...we will say it again and again, students are the best and the brightest. As such, we have a duty to try and change what many consider the static and unchangeable fortunes of time. Call us idealists, call us what you will, but we have our convictions, our principles, our ideas...and we will stick with them, till all may cease to suffer, till this country is truly free and equal.

This is our united pledge and this is our outcry. This is a call to a world that is deaf, to a government that does not act, to a people born free but unwilling or unable to accept the responsibilities that come with that freedom. This is our message to all who are willing to listen. The time for talking is at an end. The “what ifs” must be supplanted with direct action, and that doesn’t only mean running for election, it means going into areas where help is needed most, fighting for those who cannot fight, petitioning our government for redress, if need be protesting each and every injustice done upon any American. And if it means we must help more than just our society, then so be it. The idea of participatory democracy will be born anew, and Americans will take democracy to wherever injustice cries out for it.

For this we will fight, for our brothers and our sisters, for Americans, and for all who suffer unjustly, for all who cry out in one voice, for help. We call upon any and all students to take this message seriously. We have a duty and a responsibility toward our fellow man, and we must come to his or her aide, and we must fight for what our country stands for, not by taking arms, but rather, by directly intervening and peacefully fighting for those who cannot fight. The future, our future, everyone’s future, hangs in the balance.

This is the outcry of a people in darkness. This is the outcry of a generation of dissatisfied and committed reformers. This is the call to action for all who hold our nation and its principles dear. We hold that all are entitled to freedom, to the privileges of democracy, to the rights of due process before the law, to an equal and good education, and most important of all, we hold that a government resting on the consent of the governed must respond to the needs of its citizens. All of us can make our decisions and have the right to decide our values without fear of oppression or any fear. We will not live in fear, we will not back down, we will do what is right, in a non-violent and democratic manner.

V. The Call

I am the voice from within. I seek to stir the hearts and minds of all mankind to action. Belittle me not, for I am no fool. I am another cog in this wheel of society. But I am the faulty cog, the cog that slows the gears down—the thorn within the side of this society’s back. I have seen many things—things that a nineteen year old should not see. I have seen genocide, I have seen war, and I have seen the destruction wrecked upon this nation by terrorism—I saw September 11, 2001, unfold before my eyes, and since that time, a pervasive fear has stained my mind, it’s very feelers can no longer simply sleep with ease, not without thinking about the possibility that I might not wake up tomorrow.
In this climate, our generation has arisen. We were born in the eighties, when Reagan and Bush, were the president’s. We saw the end of the Cold War, and the fall of so-called Communist states throughout the world, including the U.S.S.R. We saw the marvels of technology, the rise of new phenomena: the internet, which has broadened the fields of communication and business more than any preceding invention. We have also seen many disturbing trends. We have seen the destruction of states, the rise of “ethnic-cleansing” and more subtle variations of genocide. We have seen hopes and dreams crushed, the spread of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and the rise of SARS, we have seen famine, and we have seen inequality on a scale that beguiles even the most intelligent members of our society. We have also seen materialism grow rampant, and an unequal distribution of wealth that makes the Roaring Twenties seem comparatively small. We are now in a worse state of affairs in many areas, than most care to admit.
The Court’s since the 1990s have begun chiseling at the gains made by the now dormant Civil Rights Movement, and alongside these trends, remain older, more established problems. Racism is not a thing of the past, nor is injustice and intolerance. Gay marriage is being fought against by conservatives in Massachusettes, where the highest court in that state has harkened back to the idea of “separate” being “inherently unequal.” We are also in a time that eerily parallels the witch-hunts and “scares” that have erupted throughout our history. The Patriot Act is now being curtailed and called into question and the very reasons for a preemptive war in Iraq are now in dispute. All this combined with the nuclear threat of North Korea, the currency issues between America and China, and the upcoming election of 2004.
Ours is a generation that is deplored for its apathy and inactivity. On one level, I cannot help but agree with this assessment. We are spoiled, we may not want to hear it, but we are. We were until recently, used to being protected by two oceans, we are also the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, but we fail to understand that with such great power and such great freedom, there comes naturally, ever greater responsibility. For the most part, we do not realize our duty to each other as Americans, and our duty to the world at large. It is not surprising then, that so many both within our borders and beyond, criticizes what is seen as a multitude of hypocrisies in our society. However, on another level, we are far from apathetic and inactive. Look around, go online and check out the websites filled with activist material. The “New Left” and indeed social activism, has not died, but has increased to even higher levels then in previous decades. For this, we should be lauded. We have people and many people who are compassionate and care about their society, their fellow man, and the planet which we call home.
There are many parallels here, and there are many disturbing trends. Segregation if not politically enforced, is still with us. And it grows stronger every day. Economic segregation prevents those who are fully capable of contributing to their society from moving up in life. We are now at a crossroads, where our society can either flounder as it has been doing, or can be a shining example to all others, a pride and joy for each and every citizen.
This is my call, and indeed, our call. It is a call to accepting responsibility, to combating injustice both at home and abroad, and to living up to the ideals that this our nation is based upon. I will not see people left behind in the public education system. I will not see poverty in America. I will not see racism continue, nor will I see segregation in all its hideous forms permeate our society. Nor do I wish to see the continuation of our excessive obsession with material goods. This is not what life is all about, it never has been. This is my call, this is your call, and this is our call.
We have the opportunity to make our government accountable for its actions, to make it more responsive to the needs of its citizenry then it has been, and most importantly of all, we can do all of this, by directly acting to ameliorate these problems. We cannot wait for legislators to act, while the impoverished wallow in misery, and we cannot wait for the success of “No Child Left Behind” while students across the nation are unable to receive a good public education. We cannot wait till segregation returns from the dead, nor can we wait till another terrorist attack happens, we simply cannot wait!
Where has the idealism gone America? I hear it in my sleep, I hear it in the halls of campuses across the nation, and yet the flame of activism flickers in and out of our consciousness. Where have we all gone? What are we doing to help each other, and our society, and indeed, the world? Where has that novel idea of participatory democracy gone? Where have all the protestors gone? What has become of civil disobedience? Some call us sheep to be herded and manipulated, and that, I do not believe for one second. We are not sheep we are individuals, individuals with a sense of our responsibilities toward each other. We must act, in a non-violent, coordinated, and most importantly, united way in order to achieve progress for the betterment of the United States.
Look around you, what do you see? A world in shambles? A world without hope? A world where the innocent are the victims, where men and women toil for days on end never getting out of their miserable circumstances? Do you see a world where poverty runs rampant, where people die and are murdered just the same, without a thought? Or do you see the chance to set things right? Do you see the hope burning in the ashes of our collective history? I do. Do you see what I see? This is the call of a man who will not stand aside while the world and all its troubles pass him by. This is our call, a call of unity, a call of strength, a call to unite and fight against injustice and for the ideals which we all hold dear.


The rest now remains in our hands. We cannot emphasize it any more, we must act decisively to counter the forces of injustice and bring us closer to that ideal of a truly participatory democracy. We cannot do it alone. We will either join together in one united voice tackling the problems facing our country, or we will fail. Failure is not an option. We are more numerous then ever before, we are more informed then any generation prior to us. We have the tools with which to champion the causes of human dignity, freedom, and justice for all, the question is not, are we able to accomplish what we want to do, rather are we willing to do what must be done?
As the Student Reform Movement, we are committed to seeing these goals achieved, in the hopes that a better, more free, and just society can be erected. We see a society where all can truly be equal before the law, where those who have no voice will have one, and where justice will be the guiding principle of society. We have made our case, we have looked back to those before us, and we have sent out the call, not it is our duty to act. If we fail, it will cost future generations, but if….if we succeed, we will truly bring about an era of justice and peace, of freedom and equality to the nation.

“If we appear to seek the unattainable…then let it be known that we do so to avoid the unimaginable.”

I. Introduction

We are the people of this generation, the sons and the daughters of one of the most active generations that this nation has ever seen. We have been bred in a world where prosperity reigns, where the Cold War has ended, where the European Union is emerging, and where the new threats come from terrorists and rogue states of the third world. We have inherited a world in which advancements have been made, and progress has come-but both are receding before the face of a new wave of apathy and complacency.
When we were young, we saw the heights of 1980s, the rise of conservative forces, and of liberals who began backing away from more progressive and proactive positions. We saw the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, but equally so, we saw the rise of genocide in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda, and in a host of other locations across the world.
We once again "look uncomfortably to the world we inherit," but we are divided, and in many cases, one could say that the situation of today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is far graver then it was in August of 1962. We have also witnessed disturbing trends across the board. In presidential elections, about half of those registered to vote exercise their right. The figures are even less for congressional, state, and local elections. At the same time, our world has grown ever smaller. The so-called "Modern" age is shifting into the "Post-Modern" age, where the free-flow of information is of primary importance. We have witnessed the marvels of modern science and technology in the form of the internet, but we have also witnessed the failure of nuclear non-proliferation. We saw a blatant and premeditated attack on our country by terrorists, that shattered our belief that the evils and injustices perpetuated in other areas of the globe, could not touch us.
In spite of all these trends, the vision of participatory democracy has not changed. It may have been silenced, but it has not changed. More of our generation then ever before have become involved in activism, and we have our predecessors to thank for this. However, to say that all our problems have been solved is a far cry from the very hard truth-the reality that is our situation. More than ever before, our government has become irresponsive to our needs. Politicians are cast as liars and scoundrels, people motivated by the desire to win an election, then by the sincerity of their convictions and political beliefs. The distinctions that marked Republicans and Democrats, at times, barely exists. At the same time, alternative voices in the form of independent candidates and third parties, are unable to compete successfully against the two major parties, because they cannot tap into the same vast resources of wealth that the others can. We have seen the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement under threat, and we have also seen the stagnancy of our resolve to fight injustice wherever it maybe. It lives in our own backyards, and permeates the national body-politic. At the same time, the rise of special-interest groups has further complicated matters, and we now face a nation in which a wide-array of injustices are perpetuated and maintained as the status quo by the inactivity and irresponsiveness of our elected officials.
We seek a nation and indeed a world based on concepts that embrace reform, active participation on the part of citizenry, and a more responsive government. We believe that the current apathetic mood among our fellow citizens must be changed before major issues are left unsolvable. Nothing is impossible, if people are willing to work for and believe firmly in an idea, but in this day and age, this necessary first step is not a certainty.
Any movement for change, cannot be exclusively in the hands of one group or another, all issues and injustices ultimately affect the entire society, and therefore, it lies in everyone's hands to do what is right. We cannot simply just stand here while the world passes us by, and we cannot simply allow ourselves to ignore certain cold hard truths about our nation and our government. We cannot simply become embroiled in our own apathy and cynicism, in our own self-centered concerns-and we cannot allow ourselves to be caught up in ineffective political and societal infighting, that hampers most attempts at reform and revolutionary change.
This government is based on the principles that "all men are created equal," and it is based on the Constitution which further expounds and guarantees our rights as citizens. Yet, on so many levels: our government, our nation, and our society, do not live up to the very principles we supposedly hold dear, and extol. We seek nothing less then for our nation to truly stand tall and proud. We want it to live up to its high and noble ideals. For this we will dedicate ourselves and our lives if need be.

II. Life in the Underground and the State of Affairs of our Nation

Whatever remains of the New Left has been splintered, and while it is true that there are more activists today than in previous decades, the fact of the matter is that we are divided. We have all been working so hard, we have been sowing the seeds of new change, but all of this is being accomplished underground. We have not as of yet, built up the strength or the constituency to tackle some of the most daunting problems that continue to plague our nation. In short, we spend our lives underground. No, not repressed directly, but we are not strong enough or willing enough it seems to unite for the betterment of society and directly challenge the injustices of our nation.
The state of affairs has been deteriorating for quite some time, and though it is not too late, there are many trends that will prove to be unsettling:

1. Ghettoization and Economic Segregation: What good is political and civil equality, if many segments of society now face a more subtle form of segregation—one in which they are forced into ghettos, usually populated by minorities, who are trapped and in many cases cannot in spite of their efforts to the contrary, liberate themselves from their impoverished and unequal conditions. Where is the government? Where are the protesters? Where are the reformers? Where are the visionaries? These are our people, and these are the people who must be give a fair shot, and they are constantly, on a daily basis, denied these chances. Rather then having an equal opportunity and a chance at a better life, they have been locked in an ever-growing system of ghettos within our cities.

2. Education: Perhaps the most important cornerstone of our society is in dire need of reform. Throughout the nation, our public education systems are vastly unequal, and vastly under-funded. The bulk of the finances for public education come from the State and local levels, with something in the range of 7.2% of the funds coming from the federal government. Though we have seen the opportunities of the No Child Left Behind Act and other pieces of legislation, there is still a massive need for true reform, and an examination of the entire public education system. If the government puts its money where its mouth is, then we wouldn’t have students having books that are falling apart, or elected school officials pocketing money that is supposed to be going to the schools. It is an outrage that no one has successfully tackled this daunting and crucial issue.

3. Civil Rights: On some fronts the move in favor of civil rights has been stalled. But on others, especially that of the gay/lesbian movement toward marriage, milestones are being made on a daily basis. However, our nation cannot stand idly while those in power seek to write segregation and inequality into State Constitutions and indeed into the U.S. Constitution. Everyone in this nation, is entitled to the equal protection of their rights to “life, liberty, and property” with due process of the law. No one has the right to say that because a man is in love with another man, he cannot marry, and no one has the right to put that into our constitution. No one has the right to restore and or maintain any kind of inequality or segregation, as has been the case in recent years.

4. War and Peace: Where has the peace movement gone? Do we not see the evils of war in general, or must all idealism be viewed with such contempt? We will not stand for war, it is illegal, it is unnecessary, and it is wrong. And if war must be fought, it does not guarantee a blank check for those with the power to levy war, just because terrorism has run rampant. Our men and women are dying constantly, we see the newspaper’s everyday, and no one gives a damn!

5. Environment: The vast resources of our nation and the world are being destroyed and used up, without regard to the consequences, and the situation grows even worse as time progresses. Do we not see what is happening? Do we even care? We risk losing animal life and more importantly, we risking losing plants that sustain our life, and we risking losing pristine areas of nature for the next generation. Are we willing to allow that to happen?

There are many problems, more than these, but ultimately, these issues are tied together. We are at fault, if we remain complacent and apathetic. Only through unity can we attain our goals.

III. Values

We hold that a system of values is crucial to any society. Although humanity, has in the past, conducted itself in a violent manner, we believe in the goodness and potential of all humans. Men and women alike are possessed with the ability to change their world for the better, and to make reasonable decisions, on the basis of sound logic. Human beings have a responsibility to each other and to themselves. With great freedom comes ever greater responsibility.
“In suggesting social goals and values, therefore, we are aware of entering a sphere of some disrepute. Perhaps matured by the past, we have no formulas, no closed theories--but that does not mean values are beyond discussion and tentative determination. A first task of any social movement is to convince people that the search for orienting theories and the creation of human values is complex but worthwhile. We are aware that to avoid platitudes we must analyze the concrete conditions of social order. But to direct such an analysis we must use the guideposts of basic principles. Our own social values involve conceptions of human beings, human relationships, and social systems.
We regard men and women as infinitely precious and possessed of unfulfilled capacities for reason, freedom, and love. In affirming these principles we are aware of countering perhaps the dominant conceptions of man in the twentieth century: that he is a thing to be manipulated, and that he is inherently incapable of directing his own affairs. We oppose the depersonalization that reduces human being to the status of things—if anything, the brutalities of the twentieth century teach that means and ends are intimately related, that vague appeals to ‘posterity’ cannot justify the mutilations of the present. We oppose, too, the doctrine of human incompetence because it rests essentially on the modern fact that men have been ‘competently’ manipulated into incompetence—we see little reason why men cannot meet with increasing the skill the complexities and responsibilities of their situation, if society is organized not for minority, but for majority, participation in decision-making.
Men have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity. It is this potential that we regard as crucial and to which we appeal, not to the human potentiality for violence, unreason, and submission to authority. The goal of man and society should be human independence: a concern not with image of popularity but with finding a meaning in life that is personally authentic; a quality of mind not compulsively driven by a sense of powerlessness, nor one which unthinkingly adopts status values, nor one which represses all threats to its habits, but one which has full, spontaneous access to present and past experiences, one which easily unites the fragmented parts of personal history, one which openly faces problems which are troubling and unresolved; one with an intuitive awareness of possibilities, an active sense of curiosity, an ability and willingness to learn.
This kind of independence does not mean egotistic individualism—the object is not to have one's way so much as it is to have a way that is one's own. Nor do we deify man—we merely have faith in his potential.
Human relationships should involve fraternity and honesty. Human interdependence is contemporary fact; human brotherhood must be willed, however, as a condition of future survival and as the most appropriate form of social relations. Personal links between man and man are needed, especially to go beyond the partial and fragmentary bonds of function that bind men only as worker to worker, employer to employee, teacher to student, American to Russian, black to white, and so on.
Loneliness, estrangement, isolation describe the vast distance between man and man today. These dominant tendencies cannot be overcome by better personnel management, nor by improved gadgets, but only when a love of man overcomes the idolatrous worship of things by man. As the individualism we affirm is not egoism, the selflessness we affirm is not self-elimination. On the contrary, we believe in generosity of a kind that imprints one's unique individual qualities in the relation to other men, and to all human activity. Further, to dislike isolation is not to favor the abolition of privacy; the latter differs from isolation in that it occurs or is abolished according to individual will.
We would replace power rooted in possession, privilege, or circumstance by power and uniqueness rooted in love, reflectiveness, reason, and creativity. As a social system we seek the establishment of a democracy of individual participation, governed by two central aims: that the individual share in those social decisions determining the quality and direction of his life; that society be organized to encourage independence in men and provide the media for their common participation.
In a participatory democracy, the political life would be based in several root principles: that decision-making of basic social consequence be carried on by public groupings;
that politics be seen positively, as the art of collectively creating an acceptable pattern of social relations;
that politics has the function of bringing people out of isolation and into community, thus being a necessary, though not sufficient, means of finding meaning in personal life;
that the political order should serve to clarify problems in a way instrumental to their solution; it should provide outlets for the expression of personal grievance and aspiration; opposing views should be organized so as to illuminate choices and facilitate the attainment of goals; channels should be commonly available to relate men to knowledge and to power so that private problems--from bad recreation facilities to personal alienation--are formulated as general issues.
The economic sphere would have as its basis the principles:
that work should involve incentives worthier than money or survival. It should be educative, not stultifying; creative, not mechanical; self-directed, not manipulated, encouraging independence, a respect for others, a sense of dignity, and a willingness to accept social responsibility, since it is this experience that has crucial influence on habits, perceptions and individual ethics;
that the economic experience is so personally decisive that the individual must share in its full determination;
that the economy itself is of such social importance that its major resources and means of production should be open to democratic participation and subject to democratic social regulation.
Like the political and economic ones, major social institutions--cultural, educational, rehabilitative, and others--should be generally organized with the well-being and dignity of man as the essential measure of success.
In social change or interchange, we find violence to be abhorrent because it requires generally the transformation of the target, be it a human being or a community of people, into a depersonalized object of hate. It is imperative that the means of violence be abolished and the institutions--local, national, international--that encourage non-violence as a condition of conflict be developed.
These are our central values, in skeletal form. It remains vital to understand their denial or attainment in the context of the modern world.”

IV. The Outcry

Ours is a generation that has come onto the scene at the beginning of a new century. We have grown up with the realities of mass-media, of scandals, of violence—and the overarching concept that is—the world at large. We are more educated and familiar with our surroundings then ever before, and yet, much injustice remains. We are Americans, who have seen the devastation of terrorism, in the form of the attacks on September 11, 2001. We have seen the bursting of economic bubbles, the destruction of hopes and dreams, and the mass of unfulfilled promises made by politicians who seem simply not to care any longer.
We look onto this world with mixed feelings. We are divided and scattered, the youth of a nation, the promise of a better future, but what does that all mean? It means that no longer can America simply continue to proclaim itself the most free notion, unless it means to truly back that statement with action, and with truth.
We are the youth of the nation we are the reformers of old, the activists of the modern world, the bearers of a new torch for a new generation. And we will be guided by the basis of our very government, and we will seek to champion the rights of any in this nation and beyond this nation till the following truths are sure steadfast realities:


These are what we hold dear:

I. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and all women are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

II. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

We believe that we as students have a duty to reform, change, and restructure any and every injustice that threatens the very nature of this country. We are the students and the youth of the United States of America. This is a nation founded upon fraternity, equality, liberty, and justice for all. This is supposed to be a nation where the government is run by, for, and of the people. And yet all of this is a pure fallacy, if segregation remains, if a good education is not guaranteed for all, and if injustice after cruel injustice is levied against our people and those in the larger world. Central to this, is the ever-present fact that our government has grown to become less responsive to the needs and desires of the people. The politicians are labeled as liars, and many are corrupt beyond belief.
Throughout history, movements of reform have come and gone, polarizing the nation and breeding equally reactionary forces branding many legitimate reformers as “radicals,” “un-American,” “communists,” or in this day in age “un-patriotic” and still worse “terrorists.” We live in a world that, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, has yet to learn from previous mistakes. And no one seems to care. Gone are the rabble-rousers in our country. Where are the “muckrakers”? Where are those “pinkos ” and “radicals”? Where are those young peace-loving and idealistic student activists? Where has the urge for reform gone?
We are students and we are men and women. But what good is that, if people are dying overseas? What good is that, if so many are not free? What good is that, if our nation cannot see the problems it faces? Now, there those who would say that there are no problems—that America guarantees to all its citizens the rights of "life, liberty, and property." Well, go to the ghettos of Patterson, New Jersey. They'll sing a different tune. Go to wherever the poor live. They too, will sing a different tune. Go to wherever an American finds injustice—and you'll find a different tune. To say that all of our problems have been fixed, is an outright delusion—a lie, by which we can accept our own conformity and apathy.

Students are the supposed to be “our future”—the promise and potential of a new generation, dedicated to fulfilling the greatest ideals of this, our nation. Too many have been consumed by other concerns. Who will win the election? Who is working on so-and-so’s campaign? Who is struggling to hold a job? Who is struggling to feed a family? Who could care less about who wins the presidential election or not? It doesn’t matter, my vote doesn’t count. It all sounds familiar. This is the continual and growing apathy of our nation. Where is our willingness to fight for what is right? To take even the smallest of causes and secure justice and freedom for those in need, is that not noble? Is that not what we as Americans stand for?

One of the founding members of Students for a Democratic Society, Tom Hayden, wrote from a jail cell while on the "Freedom Rides" in the South saying:

"Human waste, I thought, is not our social legacy only because of the [African-American]—how many of our people sleep in the woods or, where there are no woods, in and around the viaducts and the warehouses and even the ditches, or in the foul rooms of 101st Street, or in some private words of their own?"

He stayed in jail, fighting for equality for African-Americans, he and others like him, had something unique, maybe it was because they were the first college students, the first generation of Americans to go through college and see what the real-world was like, that it wasn't the perfect 50's television series world they had been led to believe. Whatever it was, hundreds of thousands of students across the country were lit by the fire of idealism, ideas of freedom, of civil equality, ideas of reform...and it drove them to the streets where they protested, to the ghettos where they languished, to the very hearts of people across the nation.
What happened to all of this? Now there are no more problems, right? All is rosy, and even if there are problems, they have been here and they cannot be changed, we can't do anything, right? This is all the cynical apathetic garbage I hear around me. Surrounded by politicians who promise much but never seem to deliver, all this while the jobless and impoverished abound, while people can't get the most basic necessities, where people are lost, uneducated, unable to pay for treatments...people all over, not just in our nation, are suffering daily, and it seems as if no one cares.
WE CARE. We don't want to see that anymore...we will say it again and again, students are the best and the brightest. As such, we have a duty to try and change what many consider the static and unchangeable fortunes of time. Call us idealists, call us what you will, but we have our convictions, our principles, our ideas...and we will stick with them, till all may cease to suffer, till this country is truly free and equal.

This is our united pledge and this is our outcry. This is a call to a world that is deaf, to a government that does not act, to a people born free but unwilling or unable to accept the responsibilities that come with that freedom. This is our message to all who are willing to listen. The time for talking is at an end. The “what ifs” must be supplanted with direct action, and that doesn’t only mean running for election, it means going into areas where help is needed most, fighting for those who cannot fight, petitioning our government for redress, if need be protesting each and every injustice done upon any American. And if it means we must help more than just our society, then so be it. The idea of participatory democracy will be born anew, and Americans will take democracy to wherever injustice cries out for it.

For this we will fight, for our brothers and our sisters, for Americans, and for all who suffer unjustly, for all who cry out in one voice, for help. We call upon any and all students to take this message seriously. We have a duty and a responsibility toward our fellow man, and we must come to his or her aide, and we must fight for what our country stands for, not by taking arms, but rather, by directly intervening and peacefully fighting for those who cannot fight. The future, our future, everyone’s future, hangs in the balance.

This is the outcry of a people in darkness. This is the outcry of a generation of dissatisfied and committed reformers. This is the call to action for all who hold our nation and its principles dear. We hold that all are entitled to freedom, to the privileges of democracy, to the rights of due process before the law, to an equal and good education, and most important of all, we hold that a government resting on the consent of the governed must respond to the needs of its citizens. All of us can make our decisions and have the right to decide our values without fear of oppression or any fear. We will not live in fear, we will not back down, we will do what is right, in a non-violent and democratic manner.

V. The Call

I am the voice from within. I seek to stir the hearts and minds of all mankind to action. Belittle me not, for I am no fool. I am another cog in this wheel of society. But I am the faulty cog, the cog that slows the gears down—the thorn within the side of this society’s back. I have seen many things—things that a nineteen year old should not see. I have seen genocide, I have seen war, and I have seen the destruction wrecked upon this nation by terrorism—I saw September 11, 2001, unfold before my eyes, and since that time, a pervasive fear has stained my mind, it’s very feelers can no longer simply sleep with ease, not without thinking about the possibility that I might not wake up tomorrow.
In this climate, our generation has arisen. We were born in the eighties, when Reagan and Bush, were the president’s. We saw the end of the Cold War, and the fall of so-called Communist states throughout the world, including the U.S.S.R. We saw the marvels of technology, the rise of new phenomena: the internet, which has broadened the fields of communication and business more than any preceding invention. We have also seen many disturbing trends. We have seen the destruction of states, the rise of “ethnic-cleansing” and more subtle variations of genocide. We have seen hopes and dreams crushed, the spread of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and the rise of SARS, we have seen famine, and we have seen inequality on a scale that beguiles even the most intelligent members of our society. We have also seen materialism grow rampant, and an unequal distribution of wealth that makes the Roaring Twenties seem comparatively small. We are now in a worse state of affairs in many areas, than most care to admit.
The Court’s since the 1990s have begun chiseling at the gains made by the now dormant Civil Rights Movement, and alongside these trends, remain older, more established problems. Racism is not a thing of the past, nor is injustice and intolerance. Gay marriage is being fought against by conservatives in Massachusettes, where the highest court in that state has harkened back to the idea of “separate” being “inherently unequal.” We are also in a time that eerily parallels the witch-hunts and “scares” that have erupted throughout our history. The Patriot Act is now being curtailed and called into question and the very reasons for a preemptive war in Iraq are now in dispute. All this combined with the nuclear threat of North Korea, the currency issues between America and China, and the upcoming election of 2004.
Ours is a generation that is deplored for its apathy and inactivity. On one level, I cannot help but agree with this assessment. We are spoiled, we may not want to hear it, but we are. We were until recently, used to being protected by two oceans, we are also the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, but we fail to understand that with such great power and such great freedom, there comes naturally, ever greater responsibility. For the most part, we do not realize our duty to each other as Americans, and our duty to the world at large. It is not surprising then, that so many both within our borders and beyond, criticizes what is seen as a multitude of hypocrisies in our society. However, on another level, we are far from apathetic and inactive. Look around, go online and check out the websites filled with activist material. The “New Left” and indeed social activism, has not died, but has increased to even higher levels then in previous decades. For this, we should be lauded. We have people and many people who are compassionate and care about their society, their fellow man, and the planet which we call home.
There are many parallels here, and there are many disturbing trends. Segregation if not politically enforced, is still with us. And it grows stronger every day. Economic segregation prevents those who are fully capable of contributing to their society from moving up in life. We are now at a crossroads, where our society can either flounder as it has been doing, or can be a shining example to all others, a pride and joy for each and every citizen.
This is my call, and indeed, our call. It is a call to accepting responsibility, to combating injustice both at home and abroad, and to living up to the ideals that this our nation is based upon. I will not see people left behind in the public education system. I will not see poverty in America. I will not see racism continue, nor will I see segregation in all its hideous forms permeate our society. Nor do I wish to see the continuation of our excessive obsession with material goods. This is not what life is all about, it never has been. This is my call, this is your call, and this is our call.
We have the opportunity to make our government accountable for its actions, to make it more responsive to the needs of its citizenry then it has been, and most importantly of all, we can do all of this, by directly acting to ameliorate these problems. We cannot wait for legislators to act, while the impoverished wallow in misery, and we cannot wait for the success of “No Child Left Behind” while students across the nation are unable to receive a good public education. We cannot wait till segregation returns from the dead, nor can we wait till another terrorist attack happens, we simply cannot wait!
Where has the idealism gone America? I hear it in my sleep, I hear it in the halls of campuses across the nation, and yet the flame of activism flickers in and out of our consciousness. Where have we all gone? What are we doing to help each other, and our society, and indeed, the world? Where has that novel idea of participatory democracy gone? Where have all the protestors gone? What has become of civil disobedience? Some call us sheep to be herded and manipulated, and that, I do not believe for one second. We are not sheep we are individuals, individuals with a sense of our responsibilities toward each other. We must act, in a non-violent, coordinated, and most importantly, united way in order to achieve progress for the betterment of the United States.
Look around you, what do you see? A world in shambles? A world without hope? A world where the innocent are the victims, where men and women toil for days on end never getting out of their miserable circumstances? Do you see a world where poverty runs rampant, where people die and are murdered just the same, without a thought? Or do you see the chance to set things right? Do you see the hope burning in the ashes of our collective history? I do. Do you see what I see? This is the call of a man who will not stand aside while the world and all its troubles pass him by. This is our call, a call of unity, a call of strength, a call to unite and fight against injustice and for the ideals which we all hold dear.


The rest now remains in our hands. We cannot emphasize it any more, we must act decisively to counter the forces of injustice and bring us closer to that ideal of a truly participatory democracy. We cannot do it alone. We will either join together in one united voice tackling the problems facing our country, or we will fail. Failure is not an option. We are more numerous then ever before, we are more informed then any generation prior to us. We have the tools with which to champion the causes of human dignity, freedom, and justice for all, the question is not, are we able to accomplish what we want to do, rather are we willing to do what must be done?
As the Student Reform Movement, we are committed to seeing these goals achieved, in the hopes that a better, more free, and just society can be erected. We see a society where all can truly be equal before the law, where those who have no voice will have one, and where justice will be the guiding principle of society. We have made our case, we have looked back to those before us, and we have sent out the call, not it is our duty to act. If we fail, it will cost future generations, but if….if we succeed, we will truly bring about an era of justice and peace, of freedom and equality to the nation.

“If we appear to seek the unattainable…then let it be known that we do so to avoid the unimaginable.”