This election year brings questions about the future of our country to the forefront. How can I survive another four years of either candidate? Will our democracy survive? What does the next decade look like for the U.S.? Young people in particular are jaded, ping ponging back and forth between passionate activism and disengaged doom scrolling. With horrific wars abroad, challenges to reproductive rights, and attacks on LGBTQ+ expression, young people are feeling hopeless about democracy and questioning what it really means to be American. Youth approval of both presidential candidates is dismal — 62% of 18-34 year olds are “very dissatisfied” with our options, the highest among any age group. And this jaded attitude extends beyond the election. Sixty-four percent of 18-30 year olds surveyed by the Democratic firm Blueprint agreed with the statement that “America is in decline.” Only 16% say they are proud to live in the United States.
Despite these valid sentiments from Millennials and Gen Zers, all we hear is vote, vote, vote. Even though, as any Gen-Zer would tell you, we do vote. Fifty percent of young people voted in 2020 — an 11-point increase since 2016 and the highest rate since the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1971. When young people don’t vote, it has less to do with apathy and more to do with a lack of transportation, confusing voter ID laws, and long lines.
The impulse to prioritize voting over all else makes sense, especially this year when young people will play a crucial role in determining who wins the presidential election. But healthy democracies need more than ballots: we need a sense of belonging and identity, empowered and informed citizens, policies that respond to the people’s needs, fairness, and reliable information, among other things.
So I propose a different approach this year — not to take away any momentum from the essential push to get out the youth vote, but to tack on tangible ways to make a difference. I call this “VOTE AND.” Vote and have a conversation. Vote and help a neighbor. Vote and protest. This approach takes your experience in the election from one day a year to a lifetime of committed civic engagement. Urgent times like these call for all of us to get to work all year round, not just on election day.
Vote and…join a campaign.
If politics are your jam, investing your energy and time into a political campaign is a great way to get civically engaged. But not all of us are made for door-knocking. This civic superpower quiz identifies four main ways that we can contribute to democracy — from nurturing and caring for those around us to making connections between different groups of people. Campaigns need all kinds of skills, from event organizers to protestors to artists to text coordinators.
You might even find a campaign that’s not for a political candidate. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia calls on everyone to join the campaign for Equal Dignity to advocate for resources and education about human rights, structural racism, health security, and more. You can sign the petition here.
And if all of that doesn’t feel like enough, you can start your own campaign. Run for a position in your local government or write an op-ed to speak out about a cause you care about.
Vote and…welcome new neighbors.
Three in four Americans feel a lack of belonging in their communities. With our busy lives on and off-screen, it’s easy to ignore a neighbor in the elevator or live next to someone for years without knowing their name. But we could all take a page from children’s television host, Fred Rogers, who asked his guests, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
One way to start? Be a welcomer and observe a naturalization ceremony. A naturalization ceremony celebrates the moment when immigrants to the United States become citizens, and it’s an opportunity to welcome new folks to our country. Like many museums, the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — where Rogers’ show was filmed — hosts a naturalization ceremony during Civic Season, the period between Juneteenth and July 4th.
Vote and… take a class to overcome bias.
Being able to identify and challenge our own biases can make all of us more effective changemakers. Organizations like The Historical Black Precinct in Miami, Florida — the first and only all-Black precinct in the United States, founded in 1950 — host bias training, informed by history, to learn about our internalized biases.
If you want to go deeper, consider bystander intervention training, which encourages people to intervene in an emergency or harmful situation. Bystander intervention training can help you learn how to respond to injustices, support a victim, and elevate an issue if needed.
Vote and…shop consciously.
You vote with your wallet every day. This can look like choosing to support stores and companies that align with your values, or that also support causes you care about. For example, the Heurich House Museum in Washington, D.C. hosts an Im/migrant-Owned Mini Markt over the summer during National Immigrant Heritage Month. The Markt includes 10 immigrant-owned small businesses, local craft beverages, and talks from organizations that support immigrants. During the event, the museum also hosts a pop-up in the house’s gardens with artifacts and records that document historic immigrant experiences.
Vote and…host a community potluck.
The saying is true: food brings people together. Hosting a community potluck is a great way to learn about local foodways, ingredients, history and culture — and to meet your neighbors. You can start small, with a few friends, or go big and look for an organization near you to co-host a meet-up. For example, over 30 history museums and historic sites will host free Slice of History pizza parties for young people to gather, learn about our past, and connect with each other as part of Civic Season. Juneteenth events nationwide, like in Atlanta, Ga. and St. Louis, Mo., bring communities together to commemorate our newest federal holiday and often to celebrate Black culinary history and culture.
Some of these activities may seem unhelpful or even meaningless amid terrifying wars abroad and a stressful election this November. When I get overwhelmed, I look to the people in our history who took the personal influence they had and channeled it into their communities, even if their actions were small. I look to Pura Belpré, the New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian who provided Spanish-language children’s books when she saw the need. I look to Ida B. Wells, the journalist who reported on lynching in the South and helped launch the NAACP, despite threats to her life. I look to all the individuals that we see in historical photographs, whose names we do not know, but still stood side-by-side with their fellow Americans to fight for what they believed in. All of these people had something different to contribute, but their willingness to do more than the minimum of civic engagement has made our country better for everyone.
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