Uncommon Sense

Dear Senator Lieberman,

As a 17-year-old during the 2006 election, I strongly supported you against Ned Lamont, believing that you would stand up for what Connecticut really needed. I believed that even though you supported the War in Iraq, unlike many Connecticut citizens and many Americans, you would still put the interests of Connecticut Democrats and the Democrats of America above your own. Even though you ran as an Independent, I thought that your ties to the Democratic party were strong, strong enough to make you caucus with them and strong enough for you to support the Democratic agenda.

Well, it's a good thing I was too young to vote in 2006 because i would have strongly regretted my decision to vote for you now.

I didn't think much of your reelection when you used your position as an Independent to jockey the Democrats for a top Senate position. I didn't think about it much when you continued to support the War in Iraq. I didn't even think about it much when you support John McCain and were banned from the Democratic National Convention.

However, your supportive comments today in regard to what President Bush said about Barack Obama favoring a "policy of appeasement" towards terrorists. Bush's comments threw me first; I could go on and on about how his unilateral foreign policy (only further demonstrated by these comments) is wrong for our nation and has proven wrong over the past 7 years, but I am here to comment to you.

I am shocked (even though I really should not be) that you could be as dumb to stoop down to the side of our president. By calling Bush's statements correct and furthering that "It is imperative that we reject the flawed and naïve thinking that denies or dismisses the words of extremists and terrorists," you expressing first your own unfounded interests and you are not representing the views of your constituency.

Barack Obama and the Democrats position on this issue is not "naive," but rather a multilateral foreign policy that has worked for America time and time again, and one that has become lost on the Republicans since the election of Bush in 2000. When an average of 30.6% approval, President Bush's policies are not the way America wants to go. The unilateral foreign policies of the Bush administration have lost us the support of many people across the globe and have compromised our position against even the terrorist themselves. Maybe you need to take a greater look into this problem before jumping to the conclusion that President Bush's comments are correct and even commendable.

Second, your statement today does not support the views of the people of Connecticut. Connecticut is an overwhelming Democratic state, a Democratic state the supported Barack Obama in the primaries. Obviously, Democratic voters here in Connecticut are looking for a change, especially in the area of foreign policy. Your job as a Senator from Connecticut is to try to represent the views of the citizens of Connecticut, or at least do your best in trying to judge their view. Your actions over the past couple of months and especially today have demonstrated that you are not looking out for us, but are looking out for only yourself.

It's a good thing I guess that you are now an Independent because I would be ashamed to be a part of the same political party as you. I guess it's also a good thing that I was too young to vote for you, because I would have been ashamed of that vote. It is also a good thing that I only live in Connecticut for about 5 months a year because I am away in Massachusetts at college. And finally, it's a good thing that Connecticut doesn't have recall election policies for our state-elected national officials, because I would be the one leading the campaign to get enough signatures to have a recall election against you.

You should be ashamed of yourself: selling-out to corrupt politics in order to better your own position, while leaving the rest of us Connecticut citizens who you are supposed to represent in your wake.

Enjoy your time in the Senate until 2012 because you'll be gone after that.

A former supporter and concerned Connecticut Democrat,

Amy Baral

I just had to post it all...

Generations are defined by the years in which they were born and the specific attributes that the members of the generation hold in common. All generations have defining shared experiences that influence the way in which they live and view the world (Liesse 1). For members of the Millennial Generation, the September 11th terrorist attacks are the first event that they will remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Similar to how parents of Millennials told their children where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot, Millennials will be able to enthrall their children with stories about their personal experiences on September 11th, 2001. The attacks have been the single major event that has affected the lives of the Millennial Generation. The cultural memory of the Millennial Generation, in regards to September 11th, is still being formed, but one can be certain, the terrorist attacks have had a strong impact on the lives of this group of young people. September 11th has made them more interested in making a difference in the world, thereby helping them get involved with both community service and politics.

The Millennial Generation encompasses those born between 1982 and 2003. The Millennials are still a developing generation, as all of its members have not yet reached adulthood. Because of this, demographers disagree as to the size of the generation. The number varies from about 76 million to 83 million (Understanding the Millennial Generation 3, “The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 2). They grew up in an era of technological advances, from the Internet to cell phones, from DVD players to iPods. Two-thirds view their generation and themselves as unique (Pew “How Young People…” 1). They were nurtured by their parents while growing up, more than any other generation and; therefore, keep strong ties to their parents (Girl Scout Research Institute 3). But most importantly, the Millennial Generation was shaped by the September 11th attacks. One day, the caring and calm childhood they had come to know while growing up in the 1990s, during a time of relative economic prosperity and peace, was shattered a four plane crashed at the hands of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda and their leader Osama bin Laden.

The events of September 11th fit in precisely with Strauss and Howe’s model for the stages of generations. According to research and analysis done by Strauss and Howe, generations go through four different defining periods during the course of their lifetimes. The four stages are Awakening, Unraveling, Crisis, and High. During an Awakening, civil order comes under attack because of the values of the new group in power . An Unraveling encompasses an era of relative peace and prosperity, a high between two chaotic periods . A Crisis involves an era of secular upheaval, often with decisive wars being waged . A High era is one between a Crisis and an Awakening . (Strauss and Howe Generations 69-79) The period upon which a new generation enters the world affects the characteristics of that generation. Because of this fact, the events that occur during and even before a generation emerges play a role in shaping that generation and the way in which they respond to catastrophes that occur during their lifetime.

How do the Millennials and September 11th fit into Strauss and Howe’s model? According to the cycle, Strauss and Howe classified the Baby Boomers as an Idealist generation, Generation Xers as a Reactive generation, and the Millennials as a Civic (Hero) generation. A Civic generation is born during an Unraveling. For the Millennials, this Unraveling period was during the 1980s and 1990s, an era of economic prosperity and technological advances. This period allowed the Millennial Generation to be nurtured by their parents in a way that has made Millennials believe that they can do anything they set their minds to. Civic generations spend the beginning of their adult years during a Crisis. (Strauss and Howe Generations 335-346) For the Millennials, this Crisis began with the attacks on September 11th and has continued through the present day with the War on Terror and the War in Iraq. Their overly cared for upbringing during the roaring 1980s and 1990s created an upbeat and optimistic generation of Millennials that was ready with vigor to react to September 11th through community service and even a newly created sense of being citizens of the world.

Strauss and Howe classify the Millennials as a new emerging Civic generation based on their research on the cycles of generations. According to the pair, every fourth generation can be classified as a Civic generation, one “that does great deeds, constructs nations and empires, and is afterward honored in memory and storied in myth” (Strauss and Howe Millennials Rising 326). Civic generations are known for being vigorous and rational institution-builders. They tend to be upbeat, optimistic, and group-oriented. Their generation cycles involve creating new roles for the government and dealing with major problems facing the nation and the world (Winograd and Hais 6).

The last Civic generation was the G.I. Generation, one that was leaving this world as the Millennials were entering, leaving the “hero” void for the Millennials to fill (Strauss and Howe Millennials Rising 51-52). By claiming that the Millennials are America’s next Civic Generation based on their cycle of generations, Strauss and Howe predicted the way in which the Millennials would react to the initial catastrophe that would being their Crisis period, similar to the way the G.I. Generation reacted to the Great Depression and World War II, at the start of their Crisis period.

The Millennial Generation’s desire to make a difference through community service and political participation could simply be attributed to Strauss and Howe’s positioning them as a Civic generation. Civic generations are supposed to be community-oriented and driven, simply because of the way in which they were raised. However, in order to fully understand Strauss and Howe’s cyclical nature of generations and eras, one must also take into account the events that have occurred during a generation’s lifetime. Because the events in one’s lifetime effect the way in which one will react to future catastrophes, it is simply impossible to believe that the Millennial Generation would be as civically inclined as they currently are without the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

As the defining event for the Millennial Generation, September 11th caused a shift from a Unraveling period to a Crisis period in American history and therefore, it has had a profound impact on the Millennials. Members of the Millennial Generation view themselves as unique and as able to bring about change in the United States and in the world (Winograd and Hais 92). Aside from the immediate responses of personal fear and worry, September 11th caused 61 percent of Millennials to be currently worried about the state of the world and feel personally responsible for making a difference (Cone Inc. and AMP Insights). These feelings have translated into Millennials to taking more active roles in their communities, through an increase in community service and a newly found interest in world events and politics. The calm and prosperous world that the Millennials had grown up in was no more; it was now time for them to fully enter the world as participatory citizens, stand up for what they believe in, and help their country in its time of greatest need.

The “Bowling Alone” that Robert Putnam warned about in his 2000 book seems to be dissolving, or at least not applicable to the Millennial Generation. The events of September 11th and the subsequent responses of the Millennial Generation have caused Putnam to rethink his original theory. He theorizes that the terrorist attacks, which caught the Millennial Generation in its formative years, might produce a more community-oriented and engaged group of young people (Putnam 1). Putnam’s reasoning is derived from the fact that in survey after survey, Millennials state that they are looking for ways to leave their mark on the world. This group not only expects change to occur in their communities and in the world, but they want to be the agents of that change (Sandfort and Haworth). September 11th was the first event in their lifetimes that showed the Millennials the problems of their communities, of America, and of the world. It was this event allowed the Millennials to act on these feelings in a definitive way, reshaping the world as it is currently into a better one for the future.

The first way Millennials decided to make their mark on the world was through community service. 85 percent of Millennials believe that community service is an effective way to solve problems facing both a local community and the greater world community (Winograd and Hais 262). This can be seen in the community service activities that Millennials engaged in after the September 11th attacks. Directly following the events, most of the volunteer activities that the Millennials were engaged were centered directly on the events. They donated money to and raised money for charities set up for the families of the victims, donated clothes and food to New York City, sent cards to families and eventually the United States troops in Afghanistan, and raised and sent money to Afghanistan for the population there (Girl Scouts Research Institute 8-9).

Millennials, because of their team-orientation and independence, along with their desire to make a difference directly following September 11th, not only helped on activities and with charities that were created by older generations in response to the attacks, but also put together their own programs and funds. For example, the “9-11 Stuffy Fund” created by an eleven-year-old New Yorker named Lindzay. Lindzay is a typically Millennial, born in 1990, close to the halfway point for the Millennial Generation. Lindzay’s fund raised and donated over 6,500 stuffed animals to children in the New York City. She was spurred into volunteering in this way because of the way in which she saw her fellow classmates affected by the tragedy, rather than as a way to be recognized. To Lindzay every stuffed animal that she gave to her classmates and other similar children in New York City helped her personally deal with the horror of the events while making it easier for her peers to handle what had happened as well. (“September 11th: Take Action!”)

Moving beyond the direct aftermath of the September 11th attacks, Millennials have continued to stay involved with community service. Millennials will be known for their “grassroots reconstruction of community, teamwork, and civic spirit… in the realm of community service,” and the emergence of the Internet as a tool for mass communication, has aided the Millennials in their endeavors (Strauss and Howe Millennials Rising 214). A large number of Millennials use the Internet, especially social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, to connect with their peers, promote their views, and get people involved in their service projects. Advocacy groups and volunteer organizations have popped up all over Facebook and MySpace, allowing “young people [to] weave the internet seamlessly into their activism as they do in their social lives” (Kornblum). Facebook and MySpace, along with other resources on the Internet have also allowed the Millennials to penetrate their new socially conscious ideas for the world into the land of cyberspace.

Since September 11th, volunteerism has been internalized as part of the lifestyle for the Millennials (Winograd and Hais 84). 81 percent of the young people surveyed by Cone Inc. and AMP Insights have volunteered in the past year (Cone Inc. and AMP Insights 2). Additionally, 51 percent of Millennials say that it is important to volunteer (Liesse 1). Many Millennials think about volunteering as just another aspect of life, such as playing youth sports or learning an instrument, a view that has been reinforced in the classroom, as volunteer time is now usually a requirement for high school and even college graduation.

The United States has seen an explosion in youth involvement in community service following September 11th. While this could be attributed to the fact that the Millennials are a large generation, much larger than their Generation X counterparts, evidence shows that this outpouring of youth participation has occurred simply because the Millennials are more interested in making a difference in their communities. Currently, two-thirds of college freshmen believe that it is necessary to help others. From 1974 to 1989, participation rates in national community service programs for young adults fell from 23.6 percent to 20.4 percent. However, after 2001, with Millennials coming of age to participate and the September 11th attacks, the percentage of volunteers has surged and reached a high in 2005 of 28.8 percent (Corporation for National and Community Service 2007 qtd. in Winograd and Hais 261). Analysts attribute this strong increase in participation to the fact that Millennials began to get involved in community service, both in stronger numbers than their smaller Generation X counterparts, but also with more of a ferocity than the members of Generation X ever had.

Millennials are “coiled for civic action,” both donating their time and money to community service activities, but also getting involved with politics. This civic involvement is not only because of the stage in their life that they are currently in, but also because of the “lingering effects of the unifying national crisis they had experienced in their formative years” (Putnam 1). As the Millennials saw on September 11th, world issues do have an effect on America. Before September 11th, few Millennials knew about Al-Qaeda and their leader Osama bin Laden. The oldest Millennials were too young to remember the circumstances surrounding the First and Second Gulf Wars, the only major encounters they had with terrorism before September 11th were the Oklahoma City Bombing and the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Since September 11th, Millennials have become more interested in current events and more interested in the actions of the national government, whose effect they are directly seeing with America’s involvement in the War on Terror and the War in Iraq. Only 44 percent of those aged 18-30 held that they were bored with the actions of the federal government in late 2001, as compared to the same question in 2000, where 56 felt this way (PEW “Public Opinions Six Months Later” 4). The Millennial interest in current events has continued on even after September 11th faded from the main headlines. Young people are not only interested in news on the war and terrorism, but in all types of politics (PEW “Public Opinion Six Months Later” 4).

By getting the Millennials interested in the news and current events, September 11th has changed the way the Millennials get involved with politics. Because of their sense of optimism and desire to make a difference, 60 percent of young people believe that political engagement is an effective way to solve issues for the entire country and for their local community (Harvard Institute of Politics October 2006 Survey qtd. in “The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 2). The easiest way that Millennials have found to voice their opinions about American policies and get involved with politics has been through voting.

Voting is one civic action that that young generations in the past have struggled to do year after year. However, for the Millennials, things are looking different. Before September 11th, during the 2000 election, the participation rate among young voters aged 18-24 was 36 percent. However, in 2004 the rate was 47 percent, up 11 percent from the previous national election. (“The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 1) This increase in participation is due in part to the increasing number of Millennials coming of age to vote. As more of the Millennial Generation turns 18, the United States will see a surge in participation numbers , simply because of the large size of the Millennial Generation. The extent of the increase in percentage points reflects the way in which September 11th and the subsequent actions of the federal government in the War on Terror and the War in Iraq have affected the Millennial Generation.

September 11th was the single turning point in the lives of the members of the Millennial Generation, spurring them into taking civic action through voting and community involvement. The mismanagement of the Bush Administration in the War in Iraq and in the War on Terror, also prompted the Millennials to vote in large numbers. The increase in youth participation in elections continued in the 2006 midterm elections where there was a 24 percent increase in voter turnout for those aged 18-24 (Winograd and Hais 87). The Millennials have already made their mark on the 2004 and 2006 elections and it is likely that they will continue to do so in the upcoming elections.

Being the largest generation in American history, behind the Baby Boomer Generation, the Millennials’ newfound interest in politics could have a significant impact on the political arena. Politically coming of age in America after the September 11th attacks has influenced the policies and party that the Millennial Generation supports. Polling for the Millennial Generation has shown that they are developing an extremely progressive world-view. Millennials favor a multilateral approach to foreign policy, as they recognize the need for the world to work together to not only solve problems between warring states and with terrorism, but also issues such as global poverty and global warming (Connery “Millennials Rising” 2). This opinion is a clear rejection of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy, which many Millennials view as aggressive and unwarranted. 69 percent of Millennials favor a larger government that provides social services for the population (Winograd and Hais 95).

Furthermore, Millennials are concerned about economic inequalities and believe that it is the government’s job to help iron out some of these disparities (“The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 1). In both of these areas, the Millennials see the Bush Administration and Republican Party as failing, such as in the lack of a quick response to Hurricane Katrina. Currently, Democratic Millennials outnumber their Republican counterparts by at 1.75:1 ratio, a number that could have a significant impact on American politics (Winograd and Hais 206).

By November 2008, 50 million Millennials will be eligible to vote and by 2016, they will make up one-third of the electorate (“The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 1). These numbers in themselves have the ability to change politics. Additionally, the fact that the impact of September 11th increased the civic-mindedness and political involvement of the Millennial Generation may in fact encourage the Democratically inclined youth to vote in large numbers in November 2008, as they have in the past two elections (Winograd and Hais 197). The impact of the Millennials has already been seen in the 2008 primaries, as the turnout for the Millennial Generation in the 2008 primaries has been anywhere from three to four times higher than ever in the past (Putnam 1). It is because of this strong youth vote and his strong appeal among the youth that Barack Obama has pushed past Hillary Clinton in many of those primary contests.

The attacks on September 11th were the first events in the political and historical consciences of the Millennial Generation. For this reason, the events will no doubt have a profound impact on the members of youth as they grow up and continue through adulthood with their childhoods effectively shattered by those events. Their cultural memory of the events has made the Millennials “wary, aware, but extremely optimistic” (Hart qtd. in Nagar 1).

The terrorist attacks were the catalyst that the Millennials needed to start up their increased involvement in the community and in politics. “Just as Pearl Harbor had spawned the civic-minded “Greatest Generation,” so too Sept. 11 might turn out to produce a more civically engaged generation of young people (Putnam 1). The full results of the beginning of the Crisis period in the Millennials’ lifetime have yet to be fully determined. September 11th not only caused the Millennial Generation to become more involved in community service, but also in politics and Democratic politics at that. It is highly possible that September 11th could have created the cultural memory for the Millennial Generation that would be necessary to spark a civic realignment in favor of the Democratic Party in either the 2008, 2012, or 2016 elections. However, because those elections have yet to take place, along with the fact the cultural memory for the Millennial Generation in response to September 11th is still being developed and current events are always changing, one can never be certain that a realignment will occur in either of these three upcoming elections, or will occur at all.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Moving

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A Note to Senator Lieberman

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Recounting New Hampshire Memories

Upset about WVa?

Millennial Obsession

Thursday, May 8, 2008

History Paper!

Back to Childhood

Uncommon Sense

Uncommon Sense

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