Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Power Shift 2009 or This is what Democracy Looks Like!

Katie D.

November 11, 2009 - 6:22 PM

SHOW ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!

It's possible that democracy looks like 500 high school and college students converging at the University of Oregon Campus to demand changes in our national and global energy future. It's possible that a weekend of speeches, workshops, organic meals, regional interaction, and acknowledgement of our power as activists and leaders is what democracy looks like. Maybe the videos we watched that proved that we were a part of a national and global youth movement is what democracy looks like.

Maybe a speaker asking us "Do we have duties to each other, or merely freedoms from one another?" is what democracy looks like. After all, that's a basic piece of the international question these days: is the highest calling of humanity to care for each other and the world, or is it to merely to not get caught stepping in anyone else's' territory? This same speaker told us that "the sum of self-interest does not equal the public interest."

THIS is a model of what democracy looks like: citizens who are strong individuals, but who come together as a nation united under a government to take care of those interests beyond our individual lives. That means care for each other in times of disaster. It means care of our society and our world.

Power Shift West, hosted by the University of Oregon, was the largest regional Power Shift gathering in the country. Eleven campuses hosted youth leaders gathering for education, networking, and political action. When the politicians invoke the future of America's youth, this issue of climate change is a topic that we, the future, feel an intense connection with. Somehow America and the world has to arrive at a "triple bottom line," which means a sustainable, just, and prosperous future in the three areas of community, business, and the environment.

There were dozens of speaking events, multiple options for hands-on involvement, and keystone speeches each night. Speakers included students, youth leaders from around the country, professors, politicians, and community activists. There were panels on topics like "Greening your Local Community," "Climate Justice," "Locally Grown Solutions: Food and its Effect on Climate Change," and many others. Workshops included topics like "Campaign Planning," "Coalition Building," "Building an Effective Leadership Team," "Strategic Event Planning," and lots more. There was also an opportunity for regional breakout sessions, so that students from individual states could get together to talk about regional options for collaboration.

This is some what I took away from the event:

-It is possible to run an effective and inspiring conference run on student power.

-A hot, healthy breakfast makes an event better.

-"It's not the power of the individual that's important. It's individuals. It's us."

-People are amazingly creative

-This campus alone has the energy and creativity to create massive change

-Momentum is hard to maintain

-"Nothing happens without organizers"

-"By not acting, I was acting against the things I believe." (Panelist Nathan Jones)

-Humor is powerful.

-We have a long way to go

I also learned more about the power of chanting. We did a lot of it this weekend. It's rousing: it gets the crowd on its feet and makes you feel kind of proud. We would shout "WE ARE POWERSHIFT" quite a bit, and did a lot of the call and response model for change. I think the most common chant, though, was "show me what democracy looks like! THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!"

Now, let me make a confession: I don't like chanting. Not usually, anyway. Maybe that's why I don't like sporting events. Or maybe sports mentality is why I don't like chants. In any event, I only occasionally felt that good "swept along by the activist crowd" sensation where I felt powerful and united. That's a good feeling. The somewhat-embarrassed, do-I-yell-or-do-I-just-sit-down feeling is not a good one. So about half the time, democracy looks like me, trying to figure out whether or not to participate. But my friend Leah and I started a quiet counter-chant occasionally, not of resistance, but of alternative participation. It's a chant I love, and it goes "el pueblo, unido, nunca sera vencido." It means "the people, united, never will be defeated." But it's more complicated than that. The word "pueblo" has multiple connotations in Spanish, the first being "town," but also including "the People," and "the country." When people were chanting about what democracy looks like, I was chanting my own understanding: a reality in which country, town, and people were so united that there was no telling them apart.

My favorite quote of the evening was spoken by Jefferson Smith, founder of the Oregon Bus Project (which mobilizes youth to take part in the political process) and recently elected Oregon State Legislator in the House of Representatives. He was my favorite speaker of the weekend because of his extensive knowledge and experience, his desire to move beyond rhetoric into action, and mostly because of his humor. The guy was great. Among other things, he called us "the coalition of the benevolently irrational. Good people doing good things for no good reason."

I thought about this quote a lot, actually. Of course, it's merely funny at first. Ironic in a semi-insulting way. But I thought about it more, and realized again that there is no one pushing me to activism. There are a million reasons to want to change the world, and for wanting to work to make a new vision of the future possible. But plenty of people let that knowledge pass them by without bothering to get off the couch. So for some weird reason, causes arrive at my door and I go join them. And at PowerShift, I found I wasn't alone. Thousands of youth across the world are joining the same movement, maybe for good reason, and maybe we just arrive here, confused and willing to work.

Maybe that's what democracy looks like.