‘American never was America to me’

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

I wrote a snippet titled, “On a more bitter note…” in the June 12 “Junk Drawer,” wherein I argued that members of my generation are doing the best we can to fix the broken world into which we were born, and that the reason we don’t see many Zoomers at local rallies is because we can’t afford to live here. I also said that wealthy, retired activists need to stop condemning us for “not doing enough” simply because we don’t have the time and resources to keep up with them.

That little rant sparked an insightful discussion, and I want to thank everyone who engaged with it. In an effort to keep the dialogue going, here are some responses to the most common thoughts from readers:

What about the young people who couldn’t afford to run away to college? A quick search on apartments.com shows a slew of housing options in Seattle for $800-$1,000 and a limited number in Sandpoint, the cheapest being around $1,500. The difference: Seattle residents have access to affordable health care, public transportation, help with groceries and jobs that make rent manageable. At least half of my graduating class from Sandpoint High School did not attend college, but they still had to leave due to the high cost of living and the scarcity of housing and jobs.

I have affordable housing due to the generosity of friends. Yes, but you have to understand that most of you secured your housing before the 2008 market crash and before many Zoomers were born. All that’s left are overpriced, unattainable studio apartments. That’s not a criticism, just a reality.

Gen Z activists like Greta Thunberg were moved by moral conscience. No one “stole their childhoods.” Yes and no. Young people like Thunberg are spurred to action by morality and desperation because they understand that world leaders are damning the planet, committing genocide and stripping much of the world of their human rights and older generations are doing little to stop them. There are many activists older than Gen Z fighting the good fight, but they haven’t stopped their peers from causing exploitation and death. Therefore, activists like Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai, faced with institutions bent on killing them or the planet as a whole, had to become international activists as children.

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” said a 16-year-old Thunberg, addressing the United Nations Climate Action Summit. “I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope? How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

I would never suggest that kids sit idly by, ignorant of the world, but they should not be forced to put down the doll or the school book and take up a bullhorn to beg the powers that be not to destroy their futures. It’s the adults’ job to make a better world for children. Those kids — some as young as 13 — should not bear the weight of sins committed before they were born.

Calling them “child soldiers” is over-the-top. You want them to live in a Mayberry-esque fantasy land. Gen Z has never had the luxury of ignorance or the belief that this is “the greatest nation in the world.” We have grown up with the glut of information the internet and 24-hour news cycle provides, and we understand the history of genocide, racism, sexism, xenophobia and more. We know our government still perpetuates these crimes — that’s why the Trump administration is trying to undermine our schools. We know too much.

We are the generation that grew up with the War on Terror. We are the generation of school shootings. We are the generation of childhood suicide. I lost SHS classmates every year — three in my freshman year alone — to suicide. We are not sheltered. We have been raised in a hopeless situation, robbed of joy, robbed of innocence and then told by adults that we are the problem because we aren’t “doing enough.”

We are soldiers every time we stage a walkout to protest the gun violence that necessitates buzz-in entry, bulletproof windows and fences at schools. We were soldiers when my peers organized Sandpoint’s George Floyd protest and were met with armed militia members in tactical gear. We were soldiers when we formed and ran the Human Rights Club at SHS despite the personal risk. We were never able to form a Gay Straight Alliance like we wanted, because the school told us we would be targets of violence from students and parents.

I’m not being divisive or unfair when I tell previous generations to stop trying to tear us down and invalidate our work because we aren’t “children of the ’60s” and can’t take time off work to participate in every protest. It’s wonderful if you have that privilege, but that’s what it is — a privilege.

We want your help, your mentorship and your leadership. We want intergenerational alliances, but it’s the older generations who have to extend the olive branch instead of questioning our dedication and principles.