Young Activists Strategize for 2008

Black youth leaders & 2008

Black youth leaders are finally meeting to put together a strategy for 2008. No media is allowed but I was awarded 150 words. We are tired of other people controlling our agenda. I promised not to share strategy so I won't but I can speak on our issues. Respect is at the top of the agenda for Black female leaders and the men had to go along since they are outnumbered. We intend to push our issues in our organizations and nationally. We plan to show America who we really are and unlike our media images we are young artists, professionals, lawyers, accountants, managers, interns, assistants, entrepreneurs, workers, and students. We are everywhere and now we are getting serious about our agenda. We have studied the civil rights movement and analyzed economic trends. We know our voting power, buying power, and our personal power and we intend to use it.

Conservatives

Is it just me or does the word conservative suggest at least a small inclination to conserve? And if you're going to walk around with the label like you own the word then it seems that you would have to try to conserve things that are in limited supply like money, time, energy. My grandfather grows a garden, composts, recycles, and tries hard not to waste as a result he does not have to worry about money and can spend his retirement teaching youth to become better baseball players. In our family stories about his mother, my great-grandmother, are legendary. She was a real conservative. She voted for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and she did not waste anything not even words. My mother tells great stories about how her grandmother picked up bottles on the street for a penny refund, saved every extra penny and bought lots of AT&T stock. She was extremely independent and very patriotic. Conservatives should support energy efficiency, energy independence, and new technologies that will grow our economy. These political conservatives have words all mixed up and it can be confusing. Some conservatives want to use all the oil we have even if people have to go to war to get it and even if it pollutes the air making it hard to breathe. Their energy use and spending habits are actually very liberal. Some conservatives use the Bible and the Christian religion to make a big deal over the unborn and who can marry whom but they skip the part where they are supposed to take care of God's creation not to mention children and the poor. There is no conservative movement to care for the sick, feed the hungry, or clothe the poor so it makes me wonder what are they really thinking? How can you be pro-life and pro-war or pro-life and pro-death (penalty)?