“Let’s Get On With It”
In the March–April 2009 issue of Utne Reader, Eric Utne writes about YIP, the Millennials and Barack Obama. Eric is the course leader for YIP's “Service & Social Entrepeneurship” week.
- “Many millennials I know combine a sense of urgency about the future with a belief that they and we can and must change our direction.” – Eric Utne
Utne Reader was founded by Eric Utne in 1984. It has become the US' leading digest of alternative ideas.
The article begins as follows:
The millennials, the people born between 1980 and 2001, got Barack Obama elected. They turned out in record numbers, and they registered untold numbers of other voters. They grew up with computers, cell phones, and the Internet. They experienced 9/11 together. They have met the dire doomsday warnings of Al Gore and others not with resignation or despair, but with a resounding “Yes, we can!”
Last November I spent a week in Järna, Sweden, teaching social entrepreneurship to 39 millennials from 18 countries. They were participating in an 11-month gap-year program called the International Youth Initiative Program (YIP).
Being with these millennials felt like hanging out in a troupe of Cirque du Soleil performers. They were gymnasts and acrobats, dancers and jugglers, musicians, singers, sculptors, painters, writers, and filmmakers. We sang to begin each class. During breaks each morning, a clutch of them jumped into the freezing Baltic Sea. They performed impromptu skits and practiced the Brazilian martial art capoeira. They cheerfully cleaned the classroom and dining room in work crews. Most shared a poem or song in their native language on open-mike night. They looked into each other’s eyes. They cried tears of sadness and joy. They felt and expressed their anger, frustration, and outrage at the state of the world.
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