Take Back America (Updated)

First of all, all of the speakers are young people, which is a refreshing change from the “expert” panels that we usually see. It does mean that it is a bit less focused, and some of the presentations are better than others, but on the whole I’m really impressed.

The last three speakers were really good. The first was a young woman from Appalachia who gave a poetic speech about something that we’ve discussed here alot: the disconnect between progressive political groups and the social justice movement. It was a really amazing speech, and I don’t even want to try to reproduce it. I’ll try and find the video after the conference. They are recording it- lets hope they make them public.

The second is a young man of Salvadoran dissent, and his speech dealt with a lot of issues facing minority and immigrant youth. He’s from an organization called Barrios Unidos, and they seem to be doing very similar work to IDAAY, who I have blogged about in the past. He also did a really, really amazing thing while he spoke. When he began he was dressed in what I guess you could call “typical” gang gear (he was in a gang). But as he spoke he began removing his head gear, his clothes, etc. Under his clothes he ended up having on scrubs and a full medical getup. Though he spent time in jail, though he had always been told that he would never amount to anything. And now he is studying to become a doctor.

Anyway, after a slow start I think it ended on a really, really good note. Hopefully the rest of the conference will measure up to this panel.

I’m definitely impressed.