During the week of Sept. 11 last year, The Sun ran an editorial called “The End of Activism.” We said that it was “unsettling that the campus is mute about the war, when history suggests that now would be the time for Cornellians to act.” We noted that last year less than 100 students showed up to the campus’ only memorial, when six years ago the event drew over 12,000.
If activism is quantifiable, there is no doubt that it has declined since our parents’ generation. University-wide protests, in which throngs of students would descend from Upstate New York onto the National Mall, has halted to a standstill — not just at Cornell but across most American institutions of higher education.
But six years after the events of 9/11, does the fact that most students don’t organize demonstrations and sit-ins mean that apathy among young Americans has peaked? Is it fair for the media to portray us as so lazy, self-interested and apathetic that we’d rather talk Facebook-stalk that girl in our 10:10 Comm. lecture and watch Miss. South Carolina set Americans back to the Stone Age on YouTube than work to effect change in our world?
Youth activism is far from dead. Instead, it has transformed from sensationalized 1960s tear-gas rallies to online petitions and Internet discussion boards. Although this new wave of activism may be construed as passive, it is often highly effective in mobilizing individuals across geographic and cultural lines.
Using the power of the Internet, a group called Color of Change was able to expose Jim Crow injustice in the small rural Louisiana town of Jena. The group amassed over 160,000 signatures demanding that the District Attorney reduce the overly harsh sentencing of six black teenagers convicted of aggravated battery against a white classmate.
As effective as the Internet can be, we must be wary of over-reliance — the importance of actively engaging in civic discussion and action at a grassroots level cannot be overlooked. Cornell students have recognized this need and have mobilized accordingly. The Black Students Union and Cornell Hillel traveled to New Orleans together and worked with Habitat for Humanity in the rebuilding efforts. Others have become active by tutoring inmates at Auburn Correctional Facility. In addition, countless Cornellians across the disciplines volunteered this summer in government organizations, non-profit groups and on political campaigns.
Six years after 9/11 we are not complacent. We’ve found new ways to protest, and have effected real change at the grassroots. But systemic change — serious funding for Katrina victims, health insurance for kids and a safe journey home for the young men and women fighting in Iraq — will only come when our leaders see our post-modern activism not as apathy, but as an example.