I think the first thing we need to realize is that while Millenials will become the largest voting constituency, if we don’t step up and vote, it won’t make any difference. To a certain extent I think that is going to take a counter-alienation movement, reaching out to new groups of young people and communicating a vision for change clearly and effectively. I think our generation may be uniquely poised to do that, as local movements will be able to unite nationally (and internationally) using social media technology. But I think we all have to work very hard to find and communicate with people who are not already on the same page.

We have everything we need to create the future we have been working for. We have been carrying it in our back pockets, sometimes unaware that it is there. This last year has been an explosion of empowerment, of refining our visions. We created the largest youth climate conference in history, we drew a deep breath, and we screamed into the halls of Congress, and we created a nationwide network of intelligent leaders that continues to grow.

None of these things needed to happen — WE made them happen. This is ours.

I remember shivering in my cheap wool suit, locked arm-in-arm in front of the coal-fired power plant in Washington DC. It was the capitol climate action, I was marching in the streets with thousands of people that were manifesting their commitment for a livable future. And I was scared.

I stood in that frigid, arm-locked line, blocking the main gate to the capitol power plant, worried that my toes were going to get frostbite. I remember jumping up and down to stay warm. I remember the tone of the chants gradually changing from confidence to carrying a tinge of desperation. I remember when the police buses arrived and officers lined up in front of us with plastic handcuffs. I remember volunteers coming to us and looking at us kindly and saying, “OK, this is it, if you want to step out of line, now is the time to do it. No one will judge you. If you stay, remember to position your wrists side to side so the handcuffs hurt less.” I remember asking myself if I really had it in me to go to jail. I asked for a sign.

At that moment, a spontaneous eruption occurred, those of us in the line tripled our volume, we matched notes, we harmonized, and we all stared at the police. We tapped into future generations, we tapped into the deepest traditions of our sacred democracy, we tapped into each other, and we rang; faces pulsing, tears in our eyes, “THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!”

Nothing in my life has been as rewarding as being carried by my deepest values and loyalties past the threshold of fear. I will never be the same. I am permanently inspired.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had something to say about fear. I think he would say the same to us today. And remember, he was in his 20′s, and he would probably post to this blog himself. Here in an excerpt from an interview:

INTERVIEWER: “You’ve had some rather personal and trying experience yourself. Are you afraid?” MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: “No, I am not. My attitude is that this is a great cause. It is a great issue that we are confronted with. And that the consequences for my personal life are not particularly important. It is a triumph of a cause that I am concerned about. And I have always felt that, ultimately, along the way of life, an individual must stand up and be counted, and be willing to face the consequences, whatever they are. And if they are filled with fear, they cannot do it.”

We face the greatest cause life has ever known, for indeed its very existence, and its future existence, is ours to determine.

To answer your question, Whit, we will define this decade as the one where we call on the greatest teachers in history, on Gandhi, on MLK, on all those who committed to a just cause and were willing to do anything for it. Where we acknowledged the stakes, stood up straight, and conquered fear. The generation that stepped out of the shadows of failed systems, deadly systems, and into the light.

This can be Generation Fulfilled. This can be Generation Save. This can be Generation Brave.

We will find ourselves in resistance, in proud, traditional, peaceful resistance.