Youth Making Noise

I am always encouraged by groups like this. Youth Noise, an online network of young people, is just one example of a great group of civically engaged activists fighting for the causes that are important to them. Youth Noise is

...an international youth civic engagement organization. Using a multi-media participatory web site, we provide a platform built on networked technologies that invite youth around the world to bring their unique perspectives and creative visions to solve problems they define as critical to their lives and communities. Through a collaborative online environment, youth share ideas, convert ideas into action and scale actions to build and activate movements. We have established a global network of young people built upon a foundation of trust, authenticity and relevance; young people now leverage this network and the platform we have built to actively participate in bettering their world.

And they seem to be making plenty of noise indeed. In California on April 18th over 10,000 young people at over 25 schools will organize rallies in support of public education. They are protesting the coming cuts to the 2009 California public school budget. Some schools will host open mic rallies while others will display art work while others will take to the streets. Find out how you can participate here.

Make noise they should! Since the Bush administration came into office, money has been directed steadily away from education and into the military. In fact, over the course of his administration, the bushies have INCREASED military spending by 30% while education has faced small increases or cuts, all the while being asked to comply with new mandates. The 2009 budget is no different than years' past - the military will see a 5% increase and education gets to watch the No Child Left Behind funding rise to almost what it was two years ago...yay.
Our national priorities are incredibly screwed up. With just the money we have spent in Iraq, never mind the rest of the gargantuan military budget, we could have had...

...21,510,598 full four-year scholarships to public universities...

...or sent 58,770,981 children to head-start...

...or hired 7,689,734 new public school teachers.

That's Seven Million Six Hundred Eighty Nine Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Four school teachers!

(Or we could have had 7,689,733 new school teachers and doubled my salary...)

Anyway, the point is, wherever we put our resources, that's what we care about. We say we care about our kids and our future, but we don't. We care about power and money and "defending" a country increasingly filled with idiots. You go, California kids. Be as noisy as possible.