YouthSpeaksOut! is a monthly public affairs program hosted by high school students in Mendocino County, CA. 60 minutes. The topic was "A New Year- The Future." How does the youth view the world, who do they respect?
INTRO January 2016 A New Year- The Future Welcome to Youth Speaks Out!, a show by, for, and about young people. It normally airs on the first Sunday of each month from 3 to 4 pm. The show is hosted by young people in Mendocino County. We want to create a place where young people can talk truthfully about important issues in our lives...and have a dialogue with the community of listeners. Today s hosts are me, Dominique, and (point to others who will state their names and schools). Today our topic is A New Year-The Future. Here we are, 2016. A fresh start, a new opportunity. Will it be Sweet 16 , or more of the same? 20th century people often made New Years resolutions. They think about what they want to change in their lives, and then commit to achieving that change. For many people the resolution involved ending unhealthy practices like smoking or overeating. Some people choose character changes like being honest or volunteering and helping others. In our age group few people make New Year s resolutions. Some see it as preening and a fading cultural practice. However, during the call-in part of the show, we would like to know if you make New Year s resolutions and how that has worked out for you. Is it a useful practice? Today we want to discuss how the future looks to us, and how we think we might change it. To do that we will need to talk about how the present appears to us. Traditionally most high school students do not pay that much attention to the news beyond family, friends and local community. Many young people rely on their parents for a perspective on what is happening beyond our local worlds. We do have some classes at school that cover public affairs, but few of us are news junkies at this stage of our lives. The shifting media that we choose to look at is often basically headlines at the top or bottom or sidebar of a screen. We do know that there are lots of details and opinions on current events available any time we might want to look at them on the internet. But there are so many other items of interest on the web, that some headlines or possibly repostings of stories in social media are what we tend to see. During the call-in part of the show we would like to know how much you knew about public affairs when you were in high school, and where you got that information. As for our perception of the present, we know that we are still in a recovery mode from recent youth tragedies in the Laytonville area. But generally things seem pretty normal. Older people worry about the changing weather patterns, perpetual war, terrorism, and an always shaky economy. We know that our privacy, if we ever had it, has been invaded in the name of security. We are aware of how natural resources we depend on are in danger. But on a practical level, we are not experiencing immediate hardships. Diminished water supplies and the possibility of fires are threats we have been aware of. We do not like our lives being based on fear. The fear of Islamic terrorism in Laytonville seems completely unlikely. As does foreign invasion. Yet our entire lives our government has been at war in numerous places around the world. Some local youth have gone to fight in those wars and some have not returned. Some of us sense that the media is instilling fear to maintain control, and this can make people avoid the news and not care about anything. We would like a future that is less fear based. We would like a future where peace, not war, is the norm. We are going to talk about our plans for our futures. These include Coast Guard culinary school, Job Corps, and a few more years of Laytonville High School. Two of us have plans to create restaurants. Sometime in the future Laytonville will have a skatepark. We will have a new president in a year, so the future of the government we are living under is subject to serious changes. The odds are that in the future we will each fall in love, maybe have children, travel to exotic places, and fulfill dreams that we have not yet had. We are young and that is a great advantage when considering the future. Another topic we will discuss is who do the youth respect and why. Who do we model ourselves after, and why? Our parents? People in authority positions like politicians, teachers, and police demand our respect. The various forms of media create characters for us to mirror. In our culture those who have the most material wealth are often envied- do they deserve our esteem? Should we try and be like them? We will discuss these topics for about 30 minutes then we will want you to call in and share your opinions. The phone number will be 707 456-9991. We will tell you when we want you to call. So let s start the show by talking about our hopes for the future and how we intend to achieve that. ************************************************************ We re going to open the phone lines now. The phone number is 707 456-9991. Everyone is welcome to call Please call in if you have questions or insights about the future, making resolutions, and who you think deserves respect in our world.. Did you make any New Year s resolutions? Are resolutions helpful in instituting changes in your life? Do you have a strategy for fulfilling them? How does the future look to you? What are you looking forward to this year? How are you going to make the future better? Do we live in a fear based society? Is this a good model for keeping the world civilized? Can you envision a different means of keeping people well-mannered? Who do you respect? Why? Who were your role models when you were young? Do you have role models today? People say Be the Change. How have you, or someone you admire, been the change.
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