As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended on Minneapolis and gunshots echoed in the streets, I gave into temptation and picked up my phone. One Google search later, I had discovered that most Canadian colleges were still accepting applications. There was a way out, if I chose to take it.
Since Donald Trump was inaugurated last year, I have watched my generation lose hope. Political frustration is widespread, but many of my peers are seeking escapism rather than action. Throughout history, young people have been the beating heart of social change. Today, this passion has been replaced by pessimism.
I’ll be the first to admit my complicity in this dangerous phenomenon. In some of my darkest moments — when hateful rhetoric dominated the headlines, unjustifiable violence erupted in the streets and policies sought to erase my very existence — I too felt my hope slipping. I, like many, dreamed of an escape.
However, if history has taught me anything, it is that the only true path out of this scenario is one we pave ourselves. In the face of this crisis, it’s no wonder we feel devastated and afraid. But the antidote isn’t doomscrolling and catastrophizing. It’s time to channel our disappointment into action.
When I attended last year’s “No Kings” protests in June and October, I felt inspired and deeply proud to participate in such collective, community-based action. However, the limited presence of young people in the crowd was difficult to ignore.
The face of the modern protest movement — similar to that of the political establishment — is grey-haired and largely disconnected from youth issues. As our government unravels, retirees take to the streets rather than the young, angry masses that have led resistance from the Civil Rights Movement to Vietnam.
Loving America has never been easy. Our Constitution, our Capitol and our country itself are mired in contradiction, a fact America’s most renowned resisters know better than anyone. But it is hope — hope for a brighter future, hope that we may finally achieve the “more perfect union” our Constitution speaks of — that has spurred all meaningful change in this country’s history.
We didn’t achieve desegregation through pessimism. We achieved it because Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others like him — including the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the brave participants of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade — had a dream. The 19th Amendment would not exist had bright young suffragists like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns folded in the face of adversity, and gay Americans would never have achieved marriage equality had they not taken their fight to the courts and the streets.
Throughout our nation’s history, changemakers have been bound by two essential qualities: a love for America and a demand for America to change. This country is our birthright. It is our responsibility to ensure its progress. Despite the turmoil, I will not be escaping to Canada. Even as our nation roils with unrest, you can find me here and ready to raise my voice — today, tomorrow and however long it takes until we live in a version of this country I am satisfied with.
Nearly a century ago, James Baldwin wrote, “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
We can, and should, speak out when our country disappoints us. We are allowed to panic. We are obligated to protest. The one thing we must not do is lose hope. The America of today is deeply flawed, and our grief is justified. But the America of tomorrow — a brighter, stronger and more united America — is worth fighting for. Indeed, it will only exist if we stand up and stand our ground.
