This is our time

By Jack Tunmore

Barack Obama captivated much of the world last November in Grant Park, Chicago, with these words. His visions have captivated not just America, and not just those normally interested in politics, but young people across the world. This is because the myth that there are only a few issues that interest young people does us no justice at all; to suggest that we are only interested in celebrity culture or the latest number one is a laughable stereotype.

Whenever I hear those dreaded words ‘the youth of today,’ I want to leap to my feet and tell the world that, actually, young people in Britain are passionate, interested, and desperate to let the world know their views. On what would I base this outburst? Through my work with Amnesty International, I have been struck by the passion of the year sevens at my school in Lincolnshire, who were outraged at the news that two students had been arrested for protesting peacefully in Indonesia. Did they go home, turn on their x-boxes and forget all about the issue? President Susilo Bambang of Indonesia will tell you not, as he woke up recently to find 180 letters from 11 and 12 year olds expressing their outrage at his government’s actions.

I also went to Brussels last December with young people from Bassetlaw and our local MP, John Mann. Upon meeting representatives from the European Parliament and Glenis Willmott MEP, Labour’s Leader in Europe, our group wanted to know what Labour was doing to tackle global warming and abuses of human rights, as well as how politics worked in Europe; we weren’t limited in our scope by ‘youth issues.’

I strongly believe that as interested and informed young people we are naturally drawn to the left for the solutions to what we see as issues affecting the world today, but also our world of tomorrow, which we are desperate to shape. Young people need to be inspired to be drawn into politics by politicians such as Barack Obama and Glenis Willmott, human rights activists such as Shami Chakrabarti, and perhaps most importantly our local MPs, who need to show that we can be involved and make a difference, regardless of our age or background.

But can we show that young people are ready and eager to make change happen, that we won’t be confined by what a cynical media expects of us, and that our future will be shaped by us? Ask Mr Obama, President of the United States of America:

‘Yes, we can.’