This is Who We Are

Over the last few days, the staff at 99problems.org has been pouring over video and pictures from our time at the Power Shift Youth Energy Summit in D.C. last weekend, as well as interviews we’ve conducted. This footage, from Lauren London, brought everything back home for me.

Watching the passionate appeals I witnessed last week– for brotherhood, for unity– I couldn’t help but be reminded of Kanye West’s emotional, awesome honesty on live T.V. after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. His heart was open. He appeared on T.V. because he is famous, but the words he spoke were ordinarily, extraordinarily, human.

I am from Mississippi. I was in New York City working on a Bollywood film production when Katrina happened. The first people who approached me about the tragedy were members of the Indian film crew; before I even got a call from my parents, and my friends on the coast, I was embraced and comforted by these people from the other side of the world. It was less than a year after the devastating tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people on the coasts of Asia. For them, Katrina hit close to home, and they reached out to me.

In the absence of existing leaders, we must become the guardians of our people. With an incredible President like Barack Obama, we must support him, guide him, and –above all– enable him to be our keeper. The great man he is capable of being.

The Youth Energy movement must be a celebration of our world; a recognition of our human fragility, and a confirmation of our ability to transcend race, transcend culture, and see the joy and sorrow that unites our journeys through life, no matter the particular roads we walk.

Posted by:

Sam Patton