Power to the People

Many of my friends are too young to remember SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), and probably think the protests on campuses around the country during the 60's were only about the Viet Nam war.

Guess what? It was a little different than that. Yes, Viet Nam was a big motivator for protest, but during the 60's, young people were discovering their voice, for the very first time. Blacks and Women were finally discovering their political and personal power, and I was too young to join in. ::sigh::

Now - I'm too old to join. Of course, all movements have their b.s. - and SDS is not immune, but I was excited to read this article in The Nation (this is Liberal Media, baby!)

The notion of re-creating SDS was the brainchild of Jessica Rapchik and Pat Korte, high school students in North Carolina and Connecticut, respectively, who met on an antiwar phone hookup in the fall of 2005. Upon discovering their mutual dissatisfaction with the existing left, they hit upon the notion of reviving SDS. One of the original SDSers they first contacted was Alan Haber, president of SDS from 1960 to 1962, now a woodworker in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who had independently suggested "re-membering" SDS at a historians' conference in 2003. Once the call to relaunch SDS went public in January 2006 with a new website, campus chapters began popping up, from Florida to Colorado. Today, there are more than 100 college chapters and dozens more in high schools.

The past 6 years have left me feeling disenfranchised, even though I vote and work actively against the Facsio-Bush Agenda. To read about two young women - high school students - re-starting an organization that gave voice to thousands and thousands of young Americans almost 50 years ago gives me a little bit of hope. Of course, I was too young in the 60's to be a part of the original SDS, and I'm too old to be a part of the new SDS, but damn, at least they're doing something.

Power to the People.