Staring Down a Tank: The Process of a Change
For the past week or so, I’ve been holed up at a camp in Brookston, Indiana with 50 undergraduate men and women. I’m facilitating a leadership development program called LeaderShape ( HYPERLINK "http://www.leadershape.org/" www.leadershape.org). The purpose of which is to teach men and women how to become better leaders, to lead with integrity, and to use what they know and the resources around them to fix problems they see. The main idea of the week is for these collegiate men and women to come up with their own ‘vision’- an idea they have that would make the community they choose (city, state, federal, school, greek, etc) better on the whole.
So now I bet you think this is either a piece extolling the virtues of this program....aka selling out....or a rant on the degeneration of the youth of America. I promise its neither. Now, that College Republican National Committee...such a great group...definitely worth giving money to! They're just so awesome! (end semi-corporate shill)
My last piece focused on pushing you to get out and do something. That’s the charge we need to take in 2010- get out and do something. If you care passionately about politics, about your community, about your nation- you HAVE to get out and do something about it. We’re in too dangerous a situation right now to have you wait to get involved. Washington is putting way too much on our generations ‘tab’, as you’ve seen on this website.
We need to make a concerted effort to close our generational ‘tab’ and focus on getting the tab paid before we get too far in debt and end up with a fiscal crisis on our hands much larger than what we’ve seen with Greece.
So, Republican youth of America, I challenge you now to find your vision.
It’s really simple.
What do you want to change? What do you think you can change? How can you make those changes?
This is bigger than just going out to vote or having debates with other people on campus- this is doing work. This is taking your stand and yelling out with the rest of us “Don’t put it on our tab!”
I’ll use my new vision as an example and break the process down for you.
Mickey’s Vision: Republicans 18-30 voting in the 2010 election, thus being the major push that brings conservatism back into Washington.
Look at that sentence again. You want to know the biggest part about that? In that sentence, I say nothing about myself. It’s not me doing anything.
Your vision is bigger than you.
I’ve spent the past 8 months traveling across the United States for my job and have been on numerous campuses and met numerous young college kids. I've never felt so small before. Until you travel outside your safe zones, you just have no idea how large the nation really is, which also shows how big an impact one person making a concerted effort to cause a great change can be.
Your vision must be bigger than you because what’s at stake affects way more than just you.
Now, here’s where I throw you for a loop...ready? You’re currently the most important piece to your vision.
Why?
Because your vision is unique to you. It’s an idea you have created. Ultimately, you are nothing more than the ignition. You find your vision and you begin to enact it. If you do it correctly, your vision mushrooms and becomes so much bigger than you. Your contribution in the beginning is so important to the process, but the end result is what you’re looking for.
Confused yet? I think I might have confused myself.
Let me attempt to simplify.
I’m challenging you to do something great. It doesn’t have to be massive, just make it something. Sit down and just think.
What is the one thing that you care about so much in the world currently that you would stand in front of a tank to protect?
For me, that is protecting the United States and saving the US from the ruin our current politicians are leading us into.
I would gladly go out into the middle of Times Square and stare down a tank if it meant that at least one person would take notice and stand up and make a difference. If one person stands up, they could lead another ten to do so...and then those ten lead another ten each...and that starts the chain reaction of change. In that circumstance, there’s a chance nobody ever knows that I sparked that change.
But would it be necessary? No. The end result was reached.
This is where our current president, Barack Obama, led his people astray. All the “change” you may or may not have seen since his inauguration, you’ve KNOWN he was a part of it, because it was shoved down your throat. Anything that had nothing to do with his change? He publicly distanced himself and put it down.
Thats where you make the real change. It’s not about the credit, the glory, the glamour, the press. As a Republican, you have to stand up and fight for a change to the world now, not because you want to line your pockets, but because you want to create a world that you can live in. A world you can thrive in and eventually raise a family in.
It can't even be about politics anymore. Republican, Democrat, Independent, Communist...well, maybe not Communist. It is about us as a group standing up and screaming that we refuse to let the people in charge burden our backs with any heavier a load than they already have with this massive debt that continues to grow exponentially.
This isn’t about us anymore, kids, it’s about the entire United States. It’s about the entire world.
So, find your vision. Find the one thing that would make you play a game of chicken with a tank, the one thing that lights an unending fire inside of you.
Go make that change. America is waiting.
By: Mickey Hart
Mickey is a 2008 graduate from Marietta College (Marietta, OH). You can read his other works at americannewbreed.blogspot.com or borderwarsports.com. You can reach him at HYPERLINK "mailto:michael86hart@gmail.com" michael86hart@gmail.com
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