I have been out at protests lately, and I don’t see many of you. The future is literally in your hands. Yes we have done a horrible job of creating a positive future for you, but now it is up to you.
We’ve seen the pendulum swing before — left to right, progressive to conservative — but we have never seen it crash and careen toward the end of democracy as we know it. And yet, that is the precipice we now stand upon.
As a voting power, you will decide what the United States becomes. Your choices will shape whether we live in a society of freedom and fairness — or one dominated by fear, suppression, and division.
If we keep going in this direction, here are the facts you might want to consider:
• Climate collapse is not theoretical. Fires, floods, and storms are not distant disasters; they are the daily weather of your generation’s adulthood. Who you elect will determine whether we make the radical shifts required to protect the planet you will live on long after my generation is gone.
• Democracy is fragile. Voter suppression, disinformation, and the dismantling of rights are accelerating. If you do not engage, others will gladly decide the rules of your future for you.
• Equality is on the line. The progress made toward LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and gender equity is not guaranteed. In fact, it is already being rolled back in states across the country.
• Reproductive choice is ending. Your right to make decisions about your own body and future is being dismantled state by state.
• Workplace protections are vanishing. Safeguards against job discrimination are being stripped. Workers’ ability to push back against abuse and violations is eroding.
• Immigration reform is becoming immigration lockdown. Families will be separated, people arrested without cause, and the dream of inclusion replaced with walls and cages.
• Independent media is under siege. Local, impartial news will be defunded, replaced by partisan outlets designed to manufacture propoganda, not truth.
• The billionaire class is writing the tax code. Corporations and the ultra-wealthy will pay less, while the working and middle classes shoulder more of the burden.
• Your movement and safety are threatened. Many cities will become militarized zones, where your freedom of assembly and freedom of movement are curtailed.
• Essential services will vanish. Youth hotlines, sexual assault survivor support, and mental health resources are already being cut. The systems meant to protect you are disappearing.
Dictators are killing thousands of innocent people in criminal wars and will be emboldened to capture more territory and murder more innocent children.
The world is watching. As democracy erodes, travel will become more restricted and the international community will not be as welcoming to Americans.
This is not a game show — it is your life.
You are more powerful than you’ve been led to believe. When youth movements rise, history changes course. The civil rights movement, anti-war protests, climate strikes, women’s marches — all shifted the trajectory of what was possible.
Please pass this on to your friends. We believe you are a generation of inventors and futurists who deserve a country that feels like home, not a glorified jail.
