SAVE

Written By: Gabe Sulkes

Last week in Manchester, Tennessee, the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival unleashed its annual barrage of A-list performances and psychedelic phenomena on nearly 80,000 gleeful fans. Slogging through rain, tornado warnings, and blistering heat, concertgoers flocked to an eclectic assortment of shows ranging from Phish and the Beastie Boys to Snoop Dogg and Merle Haggard. For the four-day music marathon, attendees and organizers erected a flourishing communal society on the Tennessee farmland replete with taxi depots, post offices, and cell-phone recharging stations. Businesses selling everything from gyro pitas to Garnier Fructis hair conditioner joined casual vendors trafficking hemp clothing and breakfast burritos to Tent City patrons. Meanwhile the Bonnaroo Beacon delivered fans daily news while Bonnaroo Radio provided minute-by-minute music and weather updates. A thriving metropolis indeed.

However, outside the gates, Manchester reels from the economic challenges plaguing cities and states across the country. Despite the festival’s cash infusion, the total number of unemployed in Manchester stands at 125,043 or a 9.8% rate according to the Commission for the New Economy. Meanwhile, the Manchester unemployment rate for youth ages 16-24 is rising faster than regional or national averages.

While festival organizers search for solutions to pizza shortages, Manchester attempts to address these economic deficiencies with a variety of policy prescriptions. The Centre for Urban Education in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University works to improve school resources and retention rates—a key ingredient to improving the youth employment gap. The Greater Manchester Connexions service provides support and guidance for youth age 13-19 as they consider career opportunities. Connexions attempts to eliminate a struggling cohort of youth Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). Cumulatively, these programs recognize the important role young workers play in stimulating the New Economy.

However, these youth issues are not unique to the Manchester community. National organizations are reproducing these youth employment initiatives on a broad scale.  The 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs Coalition is a leader in this fight against youth unemployment, limited education and health insurance access, and staggering student loan debts. Like Bonnaroo’s diverse lineup, 80 Million unites unique groups, including co-chairs the Student Association for Voter Empowerment, Mobilize.org, and the Roosevelt Institution. By encouraging new incentives for entrepreneurship and the expansion of “mission critical” job sectors, the coalition attempts to tackle the issues facing Manchester on a national stage.

To succeed in this ambitious venture, we need the grassroots support of Millennial youth from across the country. Writing letters to congressional representatives, staging rallies and outreach to local media, and disseminating this message of economic hardship on a macro scale. At Bonnaroo, 80,000 attendees with a common purpose, united to form a prosperous, music-infused society. If 80,000 enthusiastic concertgoers can forge a living and working community for a few days on southern farmland, 80,000,000 Millennial youth can together confront the economic hardship testing our generation. So as Bruce Springsteen bellowed to throngs of ‘Roo fans in his 9/11 ode, “come on up for the rising,” we must rise collectively in this defining struggle of our generation.

To learn more and join 80 Million Strong, please visit http://80millionstrong.org.

Written By: Katie Dean

Crosspost with 80 Million Strong

The unemployment rate for young Americans aged 16-24 rose to 17.3% in May and now stands a staggering 7.9 points higher than the national average.  Young people in America are facing the highest unemployment rates of any demographic, while at the same time accruing, on average, $27,000 worth of student loans by college graduation.  And these numbers do not reflect the negative effects of growing credit card debt and a lack of health insurance that continue to plague young Americans.

The statistics are clear: young people have been affected disproportionately by the nation’s economic recession, and yet the American public is largely unaware of the plight of the youngest members of its workforce.

Media coverage of the national unemployment crisis is abundant, but it overlooks the economic woes of the Millennial Generation.  Less than a year ago the nation’s news outlets were clamoring for stories about this now seemingly forgotten age bracket; feel-good pieces about the increased level of youth participation in the presidential election were published daily, and it appeared as though the media, and consequentially, the public, finally respected the contributions of our generation to the political realm. 

However, once the Obama-mania of election season died down and America came out of its bliss-induced haze, the media refocused its attention on the problems ahead, namely the faltering economy.  Essentially absent from this coverage has been the Millennial Generation; in a few short months our age demographic went from being the subject of front page feature stories to the occasional, and almost certainly brief, acknowledgment in an article on some larger economic issue.

While there are some exceptions, the media attention being paid to young Americans is inarguably disproportionate to the burden the recession has put on this cohort.  It seems as though the media had use for young Americans when we provided inspirational material for human interest pieces, but now that we need publicity to ensure our financial future, too many news outlets have abandoned our cause.

Let me be clear, young Americans are certainly not the only group suffering in today’s abysmal job market.  I understand that unemployment is devastating for an adult who must support his or her entire family; however, young people have financial responsibilities to their families as well, and the face of today’s caretaker is not exclusively a middle-aged man.  We do not want to replace the current image of the unemployed and struggling, we simply wish to augment it to accurately reflect the current situation.

Increased media coverage of the economic hardships of young Americans is essential to the wellbeing of our economic futures.  In the absence of a strong media narrative, the challenges of uniting young people to play an active role in shaping our economic destinies may be too great.  While the inspirational spirit of our generation may be a good storyline, it is no more important than the reality that is our precarious economic outlook.  In fact, just as the media narrative of the fall election may have contributed in spreading inspiration, press coverage of the youth economic crisis may help spark action to improve it.

Written By: Ryan Erickson-Kulas

As the 2009 Virginia Democratic Gubernatorial Primary has ended and the general election campaign begins, one issue receiving dramatically increased attention is the restoration of voting rights for ex-felons in Virginia. All three Democratic primary candidates, including victor Creigh Deeds, came out in favor of restoring voting rights for nonviolent felons once they have finished their sentence and probation. Under current Virginia law, all convicted felons are permanently disenfranchised unless they receive a personal intervention from the governor. Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that have such strict laws; however, similar measures exist in various forms throughout the nation. Only thirteen states and the District of Columbia allow convicted felons to vote upon release from prison and only two states allow felons to vote from prison.

Such disenfranchisement of an entire group of the population is staggering. The Sentencing Project, which is a national organization working for a fair and effective criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice, estimates that one in forty-one adults have lost their right to vote, either currently or permanently, due to a felony conviction. This problem severely affects African Americans with 1.4 million African American men being disenfranchised. Their rate of disenfranchisement, which is 13%, is seven times higher than the national average.

            While the pledge by Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidates is encouraging, there is much work to be done in returning the right to vote to felons. In the 110^th Congress, the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones introduced The Count Every Vote Act (H.R. 1381). This bill would have restored the right to vote across the nation to those felons that completed their prison sentences and probation or parole. This initiative would return the right to vote to as many as 2.1 million Americans. By enfranchising these individuals it will give them the opportunity to more effectively integrate themselves back into society as fully productive members.

At the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), we support efforts to restore the vote for ex-felons. We believe that those individuals should be able to express their opinions and political will through the power of the ballot. A democracy cannot run effectively without input from all members of society, and the current system in Virginia and other states does not allow for input to be heard from a large segment of the population. We believe that voting is a key to effective reintroduction to society and support efforts to give felons the voting rights that have been stripped from them.