Generation Progress Summer Magazine 2013

! mpus Progress Americans Hey, it’s us — Ca engaging millions of young be our work to ed We’re excited e’ve expand re about, so w ca e w s ue iss e on th me. at in our new na and reflected th t this change on PAGE 3. abou Find out more

HOLDING AMERICA BACK

How our student debt crisis is causing rippling effects on our economy, and what we can do to address it.

ALSO INSIDE

THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF THE SENATE TALKS GUN VIOLENCE | LIFE AS A GAY EAGLE SCOUT NO, OBAMACARE WON’T COST YOU MORE | UNDOCUMENTED YOUTH ARRESTED, SPEAK OUT

CONTENTS Generation Progress Magazine Summer 2013

STUDENT DEBT

4

LGBT RIGHTS

18

Generation Progress足(formerly called Campus Progress足) is the youth outreach and advocacy arm of the Center for American Progress.

Generation Progress Team Gurwin Ahuja Policy Advocate

Kurston Cook Special Projects Manager

Emily Crockett Reporter/Associate Editor

Lydia Fiser Journalism Network Associate

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GUN VIOLENCE

26

IMMIGRATION

Anne Johnson Director

Rebecca Kaplan Special Assistant

Brian Stewart Communications Manager

Emily Tisch Sussman Policy Fellow

Abraham White Communications Associate

Katie Wilson Advocacy Manager

INTERNATIONAL

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20

HEALTHCARE

Layla Zaidane Online Communications Associate

Amir Salehzadeh, Anna Perina, Charles Kramer, Erin Armstong, Greg Young, Nate Tisa, Rachel Kane, Robert Fisher, Taylor Nicolas, Trevor McNary, Tyler Gabrielski, Varun Anand Generation Progress Interns

Published by Generation Progress Center for American Progress 1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor Washington, DC 20005 Printed in the United States To republish this material, please visit genprogress.org/terms

2 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

S A Look Into Our New Identity FROM THE DIRECTOR

It’s official: Campus Progress is changing.

After seven successful years of engaging young people to bring about positive change on issues ranging from economic opportunity and sustainability to human rights and justice, we are excited to announce that Campus Progress is reorganizing, expanding, and building on our innovative programs in activism, journalism, and events.

Enter: Generation Progress.

We’re the same great organization you’ve worked with in the past, and we’ll continue to work with and for you on a range of important issues.

As our 95 million Millennial generation comes of age and enters the workforce, public service, and the voting booths, our new programs will create an ecosystem for young progressives aged 18-35 to develop public policy solutions, communicate effectively, gain leadership and advocacy skills, and build our grassroots power to create progressive change.

Anne Johnson is the director of Generation Progress—formerly Campus Progress— the youth outreach arm of the Center for American Progress.

Our commitment to raising our generation’s voices has never been stronger and our new, expanded structure will take Generation Progress to the next level. As we move forward, our issue campaigns will be framed within three progressive areas: Economic Justice, Human and Civil Rights, and Democracy.

Our economic justice work is focused on creating an economy that works for our generation. We’ll focus on access to and success in higher education, loan rates, student debt, youth employment, and other economic issues—including the federal budget, and progressive economic growth— that impact young people.

Our human and civil rights work includes our continued advocacy for LGBTQ rights, immigration reform, preventing gun violence, and other issues of creating a more just society grounded in our progressive values.

Our democracy campaigns will explore ways to engage young people in the electoral process and civic engagement, including voting rights, voter education, and civic participation.

genprogress.org @genprogress Generation Progress GenProgress connect@genprogress.org

The fight for a progressive America will only become more intense. It is more important than ever before that we fight for the rights of all with a unified voice and an unrelenting march for equality and justice for all.

I hope you’ll join us.

Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 3

HOLDING AMERICA BACK

STUDENT DEBT IS PREVENTING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS FROM BUYING HOMES, STARTING FAMILIES, AND SAVING FOR THE FUTURE. HOW CAN WE HELP? REFINANCING.

Interest rates

are at historic lows and everyone—homeowners, corporations, and even state and local governments—are refinancing their debts. Refinancing allows the borrower to replace his or her existing debt with a new loan with lower interest rates and better terms. This means that borrowers can lower their monthly payments, which frees up income for purchases and creates ripple effects throughout the entire economy. There is one critical group, however, that is getting left behind in the refinancing boom: students and families who take out loans to pay for higher education.

According to a recent Lumina Foundation poll, the majority of respondents without a certificate or degree beyond high school said that they would feel more secure in both their job and their financial future if they did have such education. Furthermore, the greater economic benefits of higher education include higher contributions to tax revenues due to higher rates of employment and wages, greater productivity, higher consumption, and reduced reliance on government financial support. And yet state governments are steadily disinvesting in public higher education. Rather than cutting their costs, colleges have responded to smaller public investments by increasing tuition, which shifts a larger percentage of the burden of college costs directly to students and families. Due to both marketing by lenders and the limitations of federal financial aid, many students have even taken on private loans, which can bear interest rates twice as high as federal loans.

re•fi•nance Refinancing allows a borrower to replace their existing debt with a new loan that has better terms.

Student loan debt now amounts to $1 trillion, $864 billion of which is backed by the federal government. The majority of federally backed student debt is at an interest rate higher than 6 percent, with more than three-fourths being at an interest rate above 4 percent. These rates are double or triple the less than 2 percent rate of government debt. The higher disparity between these two rates has resulted in increased revenue for the federal government and can add up to tens of thousands of dollars of additional costs to the average borrower.

Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 5

Un f or t u n at e l y, an increasing percentage of borrowers are failing to keep up with the repayment of their loans. More than 13 percent of students whose loans came due in 2009 defaulted on that debt within three years as a result of long-term failure to make payments.

Another 26 percent of borrowers at five of the major loan-guaranty agencies became delinquent on their loans— one stop short of default.

It is in the nation’s best economic interest to ensure that students are able to make timely payments on their loans, and it’s time for federal policymakers to take action. We should enact meaningful reforms that include an interest-rate reduction and that provide a way for private-loan borrowers to consolidate their debt into the federal student loan program or otherwise modify the terms of their loans.

Refinancing is a pragmatic solution to the problem of mounting student debt in this country. Reduced student loan costs boost the likelihood of repayment while also stimulating the economy by freeing up income that can be used and spent in other sectors of the economy. Refinancing even just those federal student loans with an interest rate above 5 percent would result in a savings of $14 billion for individual borrowers in 2013 and pump $21 billion into the economy in the first year alone.

Even though interest rates Read More: “It’s Our on government debt are Interest: The Need to Reduce Student Loan remarkably low—currently Interest Rates” by Tobin 1.97 percent—interest rates Van Ostern and Anne on unsubsidized federal stuJohnson. Available at dent loans are set by Congenprogress.org/ideas gress through legislation.

They remain stagnant at 6 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

In this April 24, 2012 photo, Sarah and 6.8 percent.

It’s possible that the fu- Devin Stang stand on the porch of the ture will bring policies home they are renting in LaGrange, Ohio.

The Stangs filed for bankruptcy and lost that decrease college their Sandusky, Ohio home to foreclocosts and tighten govern- sure, but due to a 2005 law their student ment regulation of pri- loan debts are still not dischargeable. vate lending. But those The growing student debt crisis is now policies won’t help recent impacting 45 percent of all American families and 37 million borrowers. For graduates who have al- young people graduating from college, ready assumed too much this can mean delaying major purchases debt to pay tuitions that like a car or first home. But for older are too high. Lowering Americans, the impact can be even more interest rates on existing serious, with mounting student debt putting their retirement savings at risk. loans would help every- (AP Photo/Mark Duncan) one—from the borrowers to all Americans, who would benefit from a boost to the economy.

Our goal is to start the conversation about how to lower student loan interest rates. There are a variety of different mechanisms for doing so, as well as corresponding varianc-

“Corporate entities, homeowners, and many others have been able to refinance debt at quite low rates, and student loan borrowers are wondering why they can’t do the same.”

—Rohit Chopra, assistant director & student loan ombudsman, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

es in size and scope of a potential In this Nov. 28, 2011 photo, program. Generation Progress protesters shout outside a will continue to put out prod- teleconference meeting of the Board of Regents of the Univeructs, conduct briefings, and hold sity of California, on the UCLA meetings to call on a variety of campus in Los Angeles. The cost sectors—from nonprofit organi- of pensions and retiree health zations and for-profit institutions benefits are soaring at the Unito the executive branch and Con- versity of California, increasing pressure to raise tuition and gress—to submit their own plans cut academic programs at one and suggestions for refinancing of the nation’s leading public student loan interest rates. college systems. (AP Photo/ Borrowers need relief, and re- Reed Saxon) ductions in their monthly loan payments will boost the entire economy. While there are a variety of different ways to structure a student loan refinance and modification program, the end result must be the same: Any student loan refinance and modification program would need to provide protections for borrowers, guarantee lower interest rates, and stimulate the economy. As we move forward with improving the educational system for those currently or about to enroll in higher education, it is important to not leave behind the tens of millions of Americans who still possess student debt.

That’s why Generation Progress has the “It’s Our Interest” campaign, through which we will provide a platform and opportunities for the numerous stakeholders—from nonprofits and businesses to Congress and the federal government—to submit their own opinions and plans for how to best deal with student loan debt.

—Tobin Van Ostern is the former deputy director for Generation Progress. Anne Johnson is the director of Generation Progress.

“Refinancing … bankruptcy option … income-based repayment. each option has the potential to help some borrowers, so the more we can provide, the better, and refinancing is definitely one of those options.”

—Robert Applebaum, founder, ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com

“Why am I unable to refinance my loans at a fixed lower interest rate?

This is a crime in itself.”

—Cameron Gomez, borrower, Columbia University graduate

“allowing borrowers to refinance their federal loans is a great idea. The reality is we need lots of options to deal with the $1 trillion of outstanding debt.””

—Tamara Draut, vice president of policy and research, Demos Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 7

How Student Loans Are Keeping You Out Of The Middle Class When Vernardo and Claire Simmons-Valenzuela married, they imagined all the trappings of a middle-class life. Soon enough, they had kids. Claire finished a master’s degree.

They held jobs as an Army medic and a physician’s assistant.

They dreamed of next steps: owning a home, taking their first vacation in years. Vernardo would return to school for a bachelor’s in nursing. But when payments for the couple’s $187,000 in combined student loan debt—most of it accrued during Claire’s graduate education—came due, they put those dreams on hold.

“We make ends meet but basically have a mortgage payment in the student loans,” which total $1,500 a month, Claire told Generation Progress. “It has made it impossible for us to save.”

The Simmons-Valenzuelas make their loan payments on time. A strict budget keeps their spending under control.

The loans that now burden Claire paid for an education that opened doors to higher-paying jobs and better opportunities.

But the couple typifies a growing number of American families, nearly—yet not quite— overwhelmed by student debt, living on the brink.

“Young adults are in a period when they should be investing in their futures to build the kind of middle-class stability that their parents’ generation enjoyed,” Catherine Ruetschlin, a policy analyst at Demos, told Generation Progress. “Instead they are paying down tens of thousands of dollars in college debt, putting those critical investments in their future farther out of reach.”

A new study from the Urban Institute shows just how long those investments can be delayed. Millennials have accumulated less wealth since entering the workforce than their parents did at the same age, even as the economy has grown and the average wealth of Americans has doubled.

The problems that have led to today’s middle-class crisis for borrowers aren’t unknown. Cuts to public funding for higher education have gradually shifted the costs of a college education to individual students. With scholarship and grant funding limited, students have turned to loans. Escalating tuition combined with stagnating middle-class incomes have made 8 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

Vernardo and Claire Simmons-Valenzuela are one of many middle-class families in the U.S. faced with thousands in student debt from educations they took on to improve the lives of their families. Claire and Vernardo both work full-time in the medical field to provide for their children, Aaron and Nora, and contribute payments each month toward $187,000 in student loans. (Photo courtesy of the Simmons-Valenzuela family.)

it harder for borrowers to meet their obligations.

Then there is the challenge Claire raised.

“I’m paying an interest rate of 8.5 percent on my loans,” she said. “That’s well above the low rates I see in mortgages now.”

Today’s average rate for a 15-year mortgage is 2.96 percent, according to Bankrate.com. Rates on federal PLUS loans, by contrast, are fixed at 7.9 percent. Private student loan rates frequently extend into the double-digits.

Those high interest rates force borrowers like Claire to hand over big profits to student lenders. On a 25-year repayment plan at her current rate, Claire will pay out an eventual $410,663 on her original $170,000 in debt.

If mortgage payments prove too high for homeowners to handle, refinancing is always an option. That’s not so for student loans. As a recent Bloomberg article noted, students with federal loans can consolidate their loans with a new interest rate, but only one equal to “the weighted average of the loans being consolidated,” limiting the financial benefits of consolidation. Borrowers with private loans have fewer options.

New entrants to the student loan market, like San Francisco-based SoFi, offer refinancing at attractive rates, but only work with a small fraction of U.S. colleges and universities.

Advocates have begun to push for student loan interest rate reform. In February, Generation Progress released a report on the issue and launched the It’s Our Interest campaign. Earlier this year, the Progressive Policy Institute proposed creating a private sector fund that would restructure existing student loan debt and grant current borrowers lower rates in the process, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accepted comments for potential refinancing ideas, presenting some findings in April.

Refinancing is attractive to consumer advocates because small reductions in interest rates can result in huge savings for borrowers. On a 25-year repayment plan, a student with $30,500 of debt at a flat 6.8 percent interest rate (like current unsubsidized Stafford loans) would eventually pay out $63,500. If that student could refinance his or her loan at a 6.1 percent rate, the total debt burden would decrease to $59,500, saving around $4,000, and lowering monthly payments by about $20. If the loan could be refinanced at an even lower 4.1 percent interest rate, the savings would magnify: The total student loan burden would decrease to $49,000, saving around $18,000, and lowering monthly payments by about $50.

Those savings could make a real difference for today’s borrowers.

“Think about having just 5 or 10 extra dollars a month to put into an emergency account,” Caroline Ratcliffe, an author of the Urban Institute’s wealth study, told Generation Progress. “What if your car breaks down and you need it to get to work and you don’t have savings, so you have to go to a payday lender?”

That’s a concern echoed by Claire.

“I am afraid of something happening to me,” she said. “If I were unable to work, with these loans taking such a large part of our income. … I don’t know what we would do.”

—Zach Duffy is a reporter for Generation Progress.

PLAYLIST

STUDENT DEBT ANTHEMS

Got student debt? Do you have a student debt anthem? You know … a song that you love to shout at the top of your lungs whenever Sallie Mae comes calling? Here are some of our faves.

I Need A Dollar

Twenty Something

Aloe Blacc

Jamie Callum

Proper Education

Money

Eric Prydz

Pink Floyd

Walk On By

Busted

Melanie Fiona

Ray Charles

Dollar & A Dream II

Re-Education (Through Labor)

J. Cole

Rise Against

She Works Hard For The Money

Stronger Kelly Clarkson

Donna Summers

Where is the Love?

I Will Survive

Black Eyed Peas

Cake

Tune in at ItsOurInterest.org and share your favorites with us.

Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 9

INTERVIEW

How This Young Person Transformed From Gun-Violence Victim to Activist

Last summer, Stephen Barton, 22, was shot in the neck in a dark movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in one of the worst mass shootings in American history. Today, Barton, who survived with shrapnel wounds to his right arm and chest and cuts to his face, has become one of the strongest young voices in the fight to prevent gun violence.

10 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

Barton raised concerns surrounding gun safety and violence even before Capitol Hill was ready, prodding the then-presidential candidates Barack Obama and former governor Mitt Romney to present their stance on gun reform during the presidential debates. Now, Barton continues his work organizing fellow survivors of gun violence with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a nonprofit headed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Generation Progress caught up with Barton to discuss the impacts gun violence has on youth and their families and the challenges he and other proponents of gun violence prevention face when up against an aggressive gun lobby and a myopic Congress.

Who has the most to lose if we don’t get something solid on gun violence prevention passed? Is this our moment to do something game-changing?

This is certainly not the last best opportunity to pass comprehensive gun violence reform. The gun violence prevention movement is more organized and better funded than ever before. Organizations like Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Americans For Responsible Solutions (Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords’ group) are essentially OPPOSITE: Vice President Joe Biden gestures to Stephen promising to spend against politicians Barton, who was a victim of who voted against sensible gun policy gun violence in the Aurora, reform in upcoming elections.

Colo., movie theater shootJust as importantly, the American ing, before speaking about public is more familiar with the failgun violence on June 18, ures and loopholes in our gun laws 2013, in the South Court Authan ever before. No matter what hapditorium of the Eisenhower pens during this Congressional sesExecutive Office Building on sion, there has been a noticeable and the White House complex in Washington. Vice President durable shift in the public perception Joe Biden was announcing of gun violence. Many different coalithat the administration tions—suburban moms, faith leaders, has completed or signifiurban and minority groups—have cantly advanced 21 of the forged a growing social movement 23 executive actions that organized around the issue. The comObama ordered in January in munities most severely affected by response to the Connecticut gun violence are a growing part of elementary school shooting the American electorate, whereas the that killed 20 first-graders and six staff members. (AP gun lobby’s base is shrinking as the Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) number of gun-owning households and applications for hunting permits decrease.

At the same time, gun violence is increasing. Homicides have nominally decreased in the past few years, but nonfatal gunshot injuries have been increasing for the past decade. Firearm suicides continue to take the lives of thousands of Americans each year. Taken together, it’s not hard to imagine several millions of Americans who have either been shot or know someone who has been shot.

This isn’t sustainable, and we need to figure out a way to honor our Constitutional rights to bear arms in self-defense while also limiting the senseless destruction they can cause when they fall into the wrong hands.

How does your experience in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting affect the work you do?

I found that it helps to connect with people who have gone through similar experiences. What happened to me, and the things that I saw, definitely motivate me to continue this work even when it can be discouraging or really difficult. I’m able to put a human face on it—I’m reminded of the human cost of gun violence just because of my experience so I try not to lose sight of that, ever.

How effective will universal background checks—which seems to be at the heart of gun reform proposals—be in reducing gun violence?

A comprehensive criminal background check is the single most effective means of reducing gun violence without burdening law-abiding citizens. Since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System went online in 1998, it has blocked over 2

million attempted pur- Christine Barton kisses her son Stephen chases by felons, domestic Barton, on July 22, 2012, at the Medical abusers, the dangerous- Center of Aurora, in Aurora, Colo. Stephen ly mentally ill, and oth- Barton, of Southbury, Conn., was wounded er dangerous people. But when a gunman opened fire at a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, “The loopholes in the law allow Dark Knight Rises,” in Aurora, where private sales to occur with- 12 people were killed and dozens more out any check at all, which injured. (AP Photo/Robert Ray) essentially allows prohibited purchasers free access to deadly weapons. This isn’t just speculation, either—a national survey of inmates found almost 80 percent of those who used a handgun in a crime acquired it privately.

Not surprisingly, there is plenty of evidence that closing the private sale loophole will save lives. States that require background checks for all handgun sales have lower rates of domestic violence homicide, suicide, and aggravated assault with a firearm. Importantly, rates of domestic violence homicide and suicide by other means are unchanged between these two groups of states. In 2010 alone, more than 5,000 people who would have committed suicide with a gun were deterred because of their state’s expanded background check laws.

Responsible gun owners don’t have any need to fear undergoing a background check before buying a gun. That’s why multiple national surveys have found more than 8 in 10 gun owners support checks on all gun sales. More than 90 percent of the time, background checks take fewer than 90 seconds to complete, and exceptions have been written into the [stalled] Senate legislation to allow for family and temporary transfers. In other words, background checks are hardly a burden—and they will save lives. That’s an easy trade-off anyone should be willing to make.

You’ve talked about survivors and families trying to turn their frustration into something positive. What do some of these positive changes look like?

It depends, but one thing I hear a lot is this work is a distraction in a way. It helps the family take their mind off the incredible Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 11

“MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. …

YOU’D BE AMAZED HOW FAR THAT CAN GO TO SHIFTING THE OPINION OF A WAVERING LEGISLATOR ON ANY ISSUE.”

tragedy that they’ve undergone. A lot of people tell me they will never forget what happened—not necessarily move on from the loss of a son, a brother, a daughter or sister—but in doing this work and trying to pass laws that will prevent this from happening to people in the future, it helps them come to terms or give meaning to what happened to them.

I say this all the time: People can’t necessarily control what happened to them in past, but moving forward you can certainly try to change things.

I think that’s the attitude that a lot of survivors and families have, and that’s how they try to create this positive change. It doesn’t have to be through passing legislation. It can be things much smaller than that. Maybe just in their community—bringing together all the survivors or just meeting other people who have been affected by this and comforting them.

Do you think the fight to get an assault weapons ban is a winnable fight?

I think we can certainly get an amendment on the floor of the Senate, but we may not have the votes to pass it. We’re focusing instead on getting senators to go on record with a vote in support or against the assault weapons ban. The NRA isn’t the only lobbying group holding politicians to account on the issue of gun violence anymore, and senators voting against the assault weapons ban can expect to be forced to explain themselves to the majority of Americans who support it in upcoming election cycles.

Young people are very often directly affected by gun violence.

This demographic is also in favor of more “controversial” gun laws. Do you have any advice for young people who may feel dejected watching the really, really slow movement on Capitol Hill?

How can they make their voices heard?

One big thing for me is just picking up the phone and calling the offices of your elected representatives.

Sure, that means Congress, but also your state legislatures that are much more responsive to your needs because they are serving fewer constituents. The U.S. is a patchwork of different gun laws that vary at the state level and even the municipal level, and so whether or not a national effort succeeds, there are state campaign and municipal campaigns that are happening to change gun laws right now as we speak.

The high profile ones have been in Colorado, Connecticut, and New York. But they are happening all over the country. I think as citizens we make the error of focusing very heavily on national politics without even realizing how important local politics are to us and what effects we can have on local politics. So you really have an opportunity to make your voice heard by calling your state representative or just visiting their office and requesting a 12 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

meeting with them. You’d be amazed how far that can go to shifting the opinion of a wavering legislator on any issue.

The other way to get involved is you can look at the groups and organizations that are in your area and see what they’re doing and volunteer your time with them. And even just signing up for the newsletters for organizations like Mayors Against Illegal Guns—we are continually sending specialized messages to geographic regions and districts that give actions on state legislation or any number of things that are just crucial.

And another angle is— young people, a lot of them are in school, in college, and so you can talk to your professors, maybe organize a discussion on campus about this issue. You can start your own organization that is expressly devoted to gun violence prevention. Maybe writing letters to the editor of your student newspaper to make your own voice heard in a more local, closed-off environment like your college campus.

—Naima Ramos-Chapman was formerly an associate editor at Generation Progress.

AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE According to multiple major polls, about 9 in 10 Americans support background checks—the same number of Americans who like apple pie.

An overwhelming majority of young Americans say they favor universal background checks on gun purchases and feel our country’s gun culture has gotten out of hand, respondents said in a poll by Generation Progress, the Center for American Progress, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 registered voters, found that while support for common-sense reforms is strong among all Americans, young people are more likely than older Americans to see the nation’s gun culture as “out of control.” Seven of ten young Americans agreed with the statement, “After the mass killings at colleges, high schools, movie theaters, and now elementary schools, the gun culture in our society has gotten out of control.” Among those over 30, 59 percent agreed.

Additionally, more than half of young people support a proposal to ban the sale and possession of military-style semi-automatic assault weapons and a ban on high-capacity magazines.

Other highlights from the poll include young Americans saying they feel safer in communities with fewer guns and they view police chiefs and emergency-room doctors as the “most trustworthy messengers on the issue of gun violence.”

A full 75 percent of young people surveyed opposed campus conceal and carry gun laws, saying they feel they would be safer if students were not allowed to carry weapons on campuses.

—infographic by Andy Warner Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 13

BELOW: Jillian Soto, left, and Carlee Soto, sisters of Newtown, Conn. shooting victim Victoria Soto, hold hands during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 13, 2013, with members of Congress and Newtown families on the six-month anniversary of the Newtown shootings. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

VOICES FROM NEWTOWN June 14 marked six months since the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. Since then, millions of Americans from Connecticut to California have spoken out on the need for common-sense reforms to prevent gun violence in our communities.

Young Americans are leading the fight for safer campuses and communities.

An overwhelming majority of young people support such common-sense reforms, and many have become vocal activists in this debate.

These are excerpts from young Newtown residents’ unedited, untouched messages—for Congress, for their peers, for other Americans. Read their full letters at genprogress.org

14 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

‘We Did Not Elect The NRA. We Elected You To Keep Us Safe’ On December 14, twenty of my young, beautiful neighbors had their lives abruptly and unfairly ended, as did six honorable women. It is still hard for me to come to grips with. As I write this, my hands still shake. I not only can’t believe it, it just doesn’t make sense, and I have recently become overwhelmed with a constant, lingering fear because I know it still happens every day. Nine other children are taken every day from gun violence in the U.S. (along with anywhere between 30-90 adults) and I physically, emotionally, and mentally cannot handle it any longer. That is why when I say Newtown (including me) won’t back down until something is done, I say the absolute truth. —Sarah Clements

‘To This Day, Walking Into A School Still Gives Me Anxiety’ December 14 was a day like any other. I was finally home for winter break, getting ready to have jaw surgery on the 16th. (What fun…) My mom and I were in the car on our way to have my blood work done when we got the call. “This is Janet Robinson. I am calling to inform you that the Newtown public school system is in lockdown. We will keep you updated on the school’s statues.”

When I got this call, I didn’t think anything of it. Newtown has lockdowns occasionally, because there is a bank in town. I just thought the bank was being robbed, and they were putting all the schools into lockdown for safety precautions. Well, I was wrong.

When we got on the high way to go to Hartford, there were cop cars with their lights on coming down to Newtown. This is when I knew it wasn’t any ordinary lockdown. —Jennifer Radatovich

‘We Have Been Through Hell With This Tragedy’ I was caught in a hallway after the shooter was already in the building. The classroom teacher I work directly with had instinctually locked her door upon hearing the ring of shots echoing down our hallway. The custodian was running down the hall to make sure all rooms were locked and yelled for me to “GET INSIDE!!!” Having heard the custodian yell; the teacher let me in. While I sat huddled in the corner closest to the door of the classroom I sent a text to my husband that read -- Please tell the kids I love them dearly and u too. Shooting at SHS (sent 9:45AM December 14, 2012) that text was followed by a second text to my mother -- I love you forever (sent 9:47AM December 14, 2012).

—Kristy Davenport

‘I Will No Longer Be Able To Return To My School And Relive The Memories I Cherished’ On December 14th, 2012, my life was changed forever. The town I grew up in and loved had become the center of unwanted international attention. No longer were we known for the famous author Suzanne Collins which I was perfectly content with being our only notable mention. From 12/14 on, we would be known as the place that 26 (28) people’s lives were ended in one day. I will no longer be able to return to my school and relive the memories I cherished from SHS. For the rest of my life, the happy memories will be flooded with the blood and tears of the innocent children lost there. —Peter Davenport

‘We Miss Our Babies And Brave Women So Much’ You as an outsider can feel sorrowful but numb to this event: not your kids, not your town, just some small hole-in-the-wall place that you’re sure will be forgotten in a few years. I believe you lucky to be able to turn your cheek to the shattered families and community, lucky to be able to sleep at night knowing that there is not an empty bed upstairs of a child who went to school like every other morning, said the pledge of allegiance alongside their classmates, and then got 11 or more bullets planted in their tiny, fragile body. I envy your ability to be able to turn off the television and enjoy dinner with your family, even though I see my next door neighbors every single day trying to deal with the one empty chair at the dinner table.

—Elana Adelle Sadlon

‘It’s Not Even A Little Fair That He Was Taken From This World’ On December 14th, my role as a mentor changed quickly to a role of a parent. Lights in the side gym were turned off, as we gathered everyone to sit with their backs against the door. With every passing minute, things became more and more difficult. From the gym, all we could hear were echoes of helicopters landing near by. I comforted each sobbing student and told them that we needed to stay quiet so that we could finish our game of kickball when we were safe. I took out colored pencils and paper to keep nervous students busy and focused on something other then what was going on outside. —Lauren Sarna Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 15

INTERVIEW

YOUNG AND RESTLESS

Chris Murphy, the youngest member of the Senate, isn’t giving up until we have stronger gun laws.

In an interview with Generation Progress, Murphy talks about his efforts and youth activism.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Senator, could you talk about your experience growing up in Connecticut and how you knew you wanted to go into politics?

My family doesn’t have a background in politics. My father was fairly engaged politically in the town I grew up in, but both my parents were registered Republicans.

I grew up, though, in a house where it was made very clear to me and my brother and my sister that we were to live our lives in a way that didn’t take for granted our economically secure, middle-class upbringing. All three of us were taught that we needed to live our lives in a way that gave back and tried to guarantee that more people had access to the opportunities that we had.

I first started paying attention to the power of political action through the environmental movement. I was interested in the issue of environmental protection as a high school student; I was doing community clean-ups when I started to think it might be a better 16 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

use of my time to elect people to local office who would stop people from polluting our parks and our rivers instead of having to go down and clean them up every couple of months.

Early on, I started paying attention to who was elected to office and volunteering for candidates I thought believed in my values.

Since taking office in the Senate in January, you’ve become a leading voice in the fight to prevent gun violence, and standing up for friends and family of Newtown victims. Could talk about that experience and how that has become a core issue for you?

I did not work on the issue of gun violence when I was in the House, in part because my district didn’t include any of the cities that have very high rates of gun violence in Connecticut.

My life was transformed on December 14. I was in Newtown, at the firehouse, within hours of the shooting and since then, there’s virtually not a day that goes by where I don’t talk to one of the

family members or one of the community members in Newtown who were affected by the massacre.

I have been so disappointed in Washington that we have not been able to muster any type of response to the death of 20 children and six adults. I thought at the outset that the very least we would get would be an expansion of our background check system, and even that proved too difficult to overcome a Republican filOPPOSITE: Sen. Chris Murphy, ibuster.

D-Conn., right, accompanied I’m not going

by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, to stop fightD-Conn., speaks to reporters ing for a bill; I on Capitol Hill on April 9, think we’ve got 2013, following a private a chance this meeting with families of the victims of the shooting at fall to resusthe Sandy Hook Elementary citate the bill School in Newtown. (AP on the floor of Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) the Senate. I’m talking to five or six Republicans and Democracts right now who could come around on this issue.

The difference between this year and other years is that we now have a political infrastructure built up around gun violence reform, and the NRA next fall is not going to be speaking in a vacuum. Candidates who supported gun violence reform will have support from groups like Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and candidates who continue to stand against the families of Newtown are going to have a lot of ads run against them.

So there’s still a chance for senators to change their minds and come on board with the families of Newtown, but time is certainly running out. We’re going to give our best shot at bringing this bill back to the floor in the fall.

You said you’re disappointed in the failure to get some of that legislation through.

As a young member of Congress, has this experience influenced the way you serve as an elected official?

You know, I’m the same age as these families in Newtown. I feel an emotional connection to them because we’re of the same generation, our kids are the same age, and they have an urgency about passing this bill, and so do I. I guess I could look at the issue of gun violence reform and say, well, maybe I’ll be in the Senate for the next decade or longer so I have time to work on this issue. But everyday that goes by, where we haven’t passed a bill, is another day that kids and teenagers

and adults are being killed needlessly. So even though I may have some time ahead of me in the Senate, it certainly doesn’t detract from the urgency I feel about a lot of these issues.

As we talk about some of this legislation that’s stalled in the Senate, are there specific ways that you would encourage young people in the Millennial generation to get involved?

We watched the Internet take down a bill last Congress, virtually overnight—young people on the Internet took down SOPA. There is a newfound power with social media that is just being fully explored and understood by young voters and activists.

Republicans are already fearful that they can’t win national elections when they lose the young vote by the type of percentage they did in 2012. If young people rise up on issues from gun violence to student loan policy—and make it clear that Republicans potentially have even more of the young vote share to lose—it will change minds.

You mentioned student debt. Are there other issues you think young people need to help lead the way on and put pressure on Congress to act?

The moral issue of our generation is climate change. If young people aren’t speaking up about climate change, then who will?

When we’re looking at the planet warming by 6 to 8 degrees over the course of this century, young people have got to start screaming and yelling that if changes aren’t made now, it may be too late.

Now, we’re talking about young people, so I have to ask: When you were sworn in

by Vice President Biden, your son Rider stole the show (above right)—is he actually the youngest member of Congress?

There are a lot of Constitutional scholars out there who are wondering if we have 101 members of the United States Senate right now. (Laughter) You know, there are a group of senators around my age, who have young kids, but the average age of both the House and Senate has been rising over the last 10 years.

I do feel, as the youngest U.S. Senator, a responsibility to speak for voters who are in their teens or 20s or 30s. Whether we’re talking about gun violence, which tends to affect teenagers more so than any other age group, or we’re talking about student loan policy, which tends to affect people in their 20s more than any other age group, young

people across this country need some stronger voices in the Senate and in the House. Hopefully, I can be one of those effective voices.

Vice President Joe Biden administers the Senate Oath to Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., accompanied by his wife Catherine and sons Rider and Owen, right, during a mock swearing in ceremony on Capitol Hill on Jan. 3, 2013.

(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Any other advice you would offer to young people?

I have always been the newest, youngest member of whatever legislative body I’ve been in. And whenever I was running for a particular office, there were always a handful of older people who told me that it wasn’t my time.

What I found is that there is a power to advocating in your youth.

First, you tend to be taken for granted. I can’t tell you the number of elections I’ve won or the number of legislative fights that I’ve prevailed in because my opponents took me for granted and didn’t work as hard as they might otherwise.

Second, I found that I get a little bit more attention paid to me because of my age.

When I was knocking doors for my first legislative race at age 24, I was an anomaly.

And so the voters I was talking to remember my visit to their door, because it wasn’t very often that they saw someone in their 20s running for state office.

I’ve always found it to be nothing but a benefit to being active in politics at a young age. And, a lot of times, when more experienced activists or politicians tell you that a door is locked, it isn’t—they just don’t want you to jiggle the handle to find out that it’s wide open.

—Brian Stewart is the Communications Manager for Generation Progress. Abraham White is a Communications Associate.

Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 17

COLUMN

What I Learned As A Gay Eagle Scout

Editor’s Note: This piece is by Colin Matthews, a pseudonym for a gay Eagle Scout who wished to keep his identity private. As such, the accompanying photo does not represent the author.

Tucked away in a drawer somewhere I have a few items from a time I don’t think about too often anymore. There’s a class ring from high school, a money clip my father gave to me, and a pocket watch with a Bald Eagle on it. That eagle symbolizes a status. I am an Eagle Scout, the highest rank attainable within the Boy Scouts of America.

In order to become an Eagle Scout, you must fulfill a long list of requirements and receive approval by a council before you turn 18. You must also dedicate yourself to community, exhibit leadership, and hold true the ideals of the organization.

In pursuit of that rank, I learned many 18 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

things from the Scouts. I learned how to tie knots and basic first aid. I learned how to pitch a tent and how to steer a canoe. I also learned how to cook for myself, how to balance a budget and how to work within a group.

At every weekly meeting for many years, I pledged the Scout Oath. The last part of that oath is a promise a scout makes to himself: to stay physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Morally straight. During my time in the Boy Scouts, I never considered the literal interpretation of the phrase. The scouts use all kinds of imagery and symbolism.

We have oaths and slogans and laws. We talk of honesty, obedience and loyalty. I considered morally straight to be one of those high-minded concepts. I thought that

meant that you should adhere to a basic understanding of right and wrong. It meant that I should “do the right thing,” when circumstances called for it. Not an easy task for a teenage boy.

Of course there is another interpretation, a sexual one, in which to be morally straight means to not be gay and immoral.

In this interpretation, there’s no basic understanding or concept to grasp. You’re just being told that to be straight is simply the right thing to do.

But even when I realized that my own sexuality was incompatible with the Boy Scouts’ official policy, I never read it that way. Even while my Scoutmaster defended the organization’s policy of denying gay people membership, I never thought of it like that.

It wasn’t until I came out to my family that I understood that this other interpretation was taken quite seriously. A month or so after I told my parents that I was gay, I was up for review to become an Eagle Scout.

My mother told me that privately my father had many reservations.

He too believed in loyalty, honesty, and obedience. While having a gay son may have changed some of his views about sexuality, it did not change his view that I was making a broken promise every week to be a straight man.

It took my mother’s counsel to convince him otherwise. If it was difficult for me to wrestle with the dishonesty, it must have been very difficult for my father. By the time I was awarded Eagle Scout, I was living two different lives: a gay one and a straight one.

The outspoken critic and Eagle Scout Zach Wahls has publicly urged the Boy Scouts to take action for some time. In doing so, the Scouts would be taking a step toward doing the right thing and modernizing itself the way the Girl Scouts of America has. It would OPPOSITE: Pascal Tessier, 16, center left, a Boy Scout, and his brother Lucien Tessier, 20, who had earned the rank of Eagle Scout, pose with their parents at their home in Kensington, Md. The two Tessier boys enjoyed Cub Scouts, progressed to Boy Scouts, and continued to thrive there even as many in their troop became aware that each boy was gay. The family is grateful for that, but fervently hopes the BSA’s top leaders officially scrap the ban so that open acceptance becomes the norm for Scout units nationwide. (AP Photo/ Jacquelyn Martin)

make itself an organization that better reflects the communities in which it is dedicated to serving.

Looking back, I really did enjoy scouting. I enjoyed being outdoors, being a leader, and dedicating myself to something bigger than me. I learned invaluable lessons. But I also learned how to be in the closet. I learned how to hate myself, and how to pretend like a part of me didn’t exist. I had to wrestle with a new sense of identity, and I had to do that without any guidance or counsel from anyone around me.

I haven’t been following the recent news on the Boy Scouts very closely. It’s been tucked away for me, like the pocket watch. The rank of Eagle Scout is an award for life. Regardless of the organization’s policy, I’ll always be an Eagle Scout. My time in the Scouts is just one of those things I look back on now, and the fact that I had to hide who I was then sours the memories.

The Boy Scouts of America is an organization that stresses community and service. Boys and young men are asked to think about others, to do a good turn daily and to be role models. They’re also asked to become teachers and to pass down those skills that they’ve learned to others.

One of the hardest lessons I learned in scouting is that being morally straight sometimes means you lie about who you are to attain a rank you deserve. While my time with the Scouts is done, it is my hope that the organization will change it’s policy, and that those who have learned acceptance will pass that skill down to the next generation.

How The Affordable Care Act Will Help Young Americans

Since being signed into law in 2010, the Affordable Care Act has already expanded access to high-quality, affordable health coverage for the millions of young adults who can now stay on their parent’s health insurance plans.

And beginning in 2014, even more young adults will gain health care coverage through the law’s health insurance exchanges—private marketplaces where individuals can shop for health insurance—and the expansion of Medicaid.

Critics of the law ignore these facts and instead argue that the Affordable Care Act will increase health insurance premiums for young adults, especially in the nongroup, or individual, market. But our conservative estimates show that among all young adults, only about 3 percent of them might actually see a premium increase in the nongroup market—that is just 0.5 percent of all Americans.

20 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

No, Obamacare Won’t ‘Fleece The Young’ Young people will benefit from the Affordable Care Act. Let graphic artist Andy Warner break it down for you.

OPPOSITE: Samantha Ames, then-25, of Washington, poses for a portrait at her home in Washington, on March 12, 2012. As a teenager, Ames was prone to ankle injuries playing catcher on baseball and softball teams. In April 2011, she tripped over her mini bulldog and badly injured her left ankle. Ultimately she needed surgery that cost her insurer $30,000.

But she considers herself lucky. Only a few months before her accident, Ames had been able to get back on her parents’ insurance, thanks to a provision of the health care law that lets young adults keep that coverage until they turn 26. Nationally an estimated 2.5 million young people have gotten insurance as a result. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Read More: “How the Affordable Care Act Helps Young Adults” by Maura Calsyn and Lindsay Rosenthal. Available at americanprogress.org.

Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 21

FROM OUR CAMPUS JOURNALISM NETWORK

A Digital Wasteland

These photos originally appeared in Ethos, a student publication at the University of Oregon that receives funding and training as a member of the Generation Progress journalism network. The photography in this story by MICHAEL CIAGLO won first place for magazine photography in the 2012 Collegiate Circle Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

ABOVE: Fifteen-year-old Santana Alhassan Suidu burns a bundle of cords to expose the precious copper wires inside.

Located just outside the heart of Accra, Ghana, the Agbogbloshie slum is the poisoned by-product of the Western world’s digital fetish. It is the last stop for some of the estimated 50 million tons of electronic waste, or e-waste, disposed of each year. In Agbogbloshie, young Ghanaians rip apart e-waste, set it on fire to melt away the plastic casings, and salvage the exposed copper wires. Two-hundredand-twenty pounds of wire can be sold for up to five Ghana cedis, equivalent to $3.35. In the process, the Ghanaians, many in their teens, are exposed to carcinogens like cadmium and lead. The chance to earn an income, however, proves too enticing to outweigh the potential risks of scrapping out a life in the slum.

22 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

ABOVE: Scrappers like Mohammed Alhasen start fires by lighting insulation from discarded appliances. Protection against the blaze is limited to Alhasen’s well-worn shorts and open-toed sandals—a typical outfit for a scrapper.

BELOW: In a shelter made of old refrigerators, insulation, and the cab of a truck, a group of scrappers seek refuge from the midday heat to sip water and pass around a joint. It’s a daily ritual that will likely continue into the foreseeable future, for although e-waste regulation is improving, boatloads of discarded electronics continue to arrive on the shores of Ghana. Eventually, the waste meets its end in the fiery pits of Agbogbloshie, scarring the land and the lives of those that call the slum home.

ABOVE: Known as “Masters,” the middlemen of Agbogbloshie shuttle new shipments of electronic parts out to the slum’s charred fields, which border Korle Lagoon, one of the world’s most polluted bodies of water.

RIGHT: Suidu arrived in Agbogbloshie five years ago. Since then, he has only been able to visit his family in Northern Ghana once.

BOTTOM RIGHT: A “scrapper” ignites the carcasses of trashed electronics. Much of the refuse reaches Ghana’s shores as a result of poorly enforced e-waste laws in Western nations.

BOTTOM LEFT: Mohamed Suiad, right, waits with fellow Ghanaians for the next delivery of wire. “I know the fire is not good for our health,” Suiad told Accra-based newspaper Daily Guide, “but because of the money we get, we continue to stay here. We don’t like it, but we are working like that.”

Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 23

On Climate Change, Obama Is Still A

Community Organizer At Heart “I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing,” President Obama told a crowd at Georgetown University as he gave a hallmark speech on his administration’s plan to deal with climate change.

Throughout the speech, Obama alluded to young people’s ability to hold elected officials to task. It was as if the community organizer that had defined Obama in Chicago had reemerged to engage the entire country and world to take action on climate change.

“Convince those in power to reduce our carbon pollution,” Obama said. “Push your own communities to adopt smarter practices. Invest. Divest.”

The operative word is ‘divest.’ Obama is the first U.S. president to support divestment from corporations that are unwilling to adapt to a changing climate.

On his recent trip to Africa, Obama told college students at the University of Cape Town that he first became an activist because of the injustice he witnessed with apartheid in South Africa. He acknowledged that he became involved in the “divestment movement” at the young age of 19. He, along with other dissenters, challenged the U.S. government and corporations to divest from South Africa in order to put pressure on the government to immediately halt its discrimination and segregation of people of color.

In his Cape Town speech, Obama reminisced that he felt relatively powerless initially, but eventually saw how a few small voices led to a vocal crowd’s massive call for action.

Obama’s endorsement of the practice of divestment is an indication of his strong belief that people’s individual actions can make a large difference in shaping policy.

In his speech to students at Georgetown, he encouraged Americans to “remind everyone who represents you at every level of government that sheltering future generations against the ravages of climate change is a prerequisite for your vote. Make yourself heard on this issue.”

President Barack Obama removes his jacket before speaking about climate change on June 25, 2013, at Georgetown University in Washington. The president is proposing sweeping steps to limit heat-trapping pollution from coal-fired power plants and to boost renewable energy production on federal property, resorting to his executive powers to tackle climate change and sidestepping the partisan gridlock in Congress. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Obama referred to a speech that Bobby Kennedy gave to the University of Cape Town in 1966: “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

From his campaign to his presidency, Obama has effectively garnered grassroots support through creative and engaging mediums. It’s how he won the presidency. It’s how he’s governing as President. The young activist and community organizer Obama was is still very much part of President Obama’s leadership philosophy.

The President’s recent endorsement of di-

vestment encourages Americans, especially young Americans, to demand action on an issue that has been neglected for far too long. Young Americans are demanding the divestiture from corporations that are exploring for more hydrocarbons. According to the Go Fossil Free campaign, over 200 publicly traded companies hold most of the world’s proven coal, oil, and gas reserves.

Obama shone a light on groups like Go Fossil Free, and through his words he encouraged Millennials to be creative in the ways they demand action and rally their communities. His recent remarks show a renewed and reinvigorated interest in dealing with not only climate change, but also helping to energize young Americans to organize their communities for action.

—Amir Salehzadeh is an intern with Generation Progress.

Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 25

FROM OUR CAMPUS JOURNALISM NETWORK

If You Thought You Worked Hard To Get To College, Think Again Surrounded by a crowd of Georgia State University students, angry motorists, and officers from the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia State Police Department, six undocumented youth activists from across the nation dropped a banner from a bridge walkway onto Courtland Street—a busy one-way street in Atlanta. It was April 2011.

One of the biggest and most elaborate political actions in the immigrant youth justice movement, the activists protested Georgia’s Board of Regents’ ban of undocumented youth, which barred undocumented residents from the top five competitive universities in the state. They marched around the banner wearing graduation caps—representing the 65,000 undocumented high school graduates living in the United States today.

Arrested first, Georgina Perez, a former GSU student, led the action. More than a year later, Perez has found a new home at Syracuse Univeristy.

As the now 23-year-old junior sits on the Syracuse campus, she loads a YouTube video of the day’s whirlwind events. Unease arises as she plays the clip.

“I don’t watch these videos,” she says, “I feel very uncomfortable.” She watches an officer place her in handcuffs among a crowd of flashing photographers. She sits still, reliving the day her voice, once silenced as an undocumented alien, released a defiant roar.

Her journey from being just one of 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to becoming a leading immigration activist in Atlanta began when Perez’s single mother brought her to Los Angeles in 1992. Like most Mexican immigrants, her mother was searching for better opportunities.

“She used to work days at a factory making scrunchies so that she could provide for us,” Georgina said.

The pair made their way to Georgia on June 23, 2001.

“I remember the exact day because it was 26 | Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress

In this April 5, 2011 photo, a police officer instructs undocumented immigrant Georgina Perez to move or face arrest for blocking traffic with other demonstrators in Atlanta during a protest calling for rights for undocumented immigrants for higher education. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

complete culture shock,” she said. “I cried when I came to Georgia. I hated the quiet.”

Amid the upheaval, Georgina clung tightly to her lifelong dream of attending college. After excelling in high school, GSU accepted her, but the reality of living without the rights and privileges of a documented U.S. citizen set in fast. Restricted from any state financial aid, Georgina took one semester off to work full time and enrolled in classes the next. But her hard work came to an abrupt end when the Georgia Regents banned undocumented youth from state universities on Oct. 13, 2010, barring Perez from enrolling for another semester.

“I was completely heartbroken because the only reason I wanted to finish school was for my mom,” she said.

Kevin R. Johnson, dean and professor of public interest law and Chicana/o studies at

the University of California–Davis School of Law, said the ban represented a long line of policies implemented by states like Alabama and Georgia to deny undocumented students access to higher education.

“It’s a troubling development because these youths came here as children,” Johnson said. “We provided them with a K–12 education, and we invested in them, and then we’re cutting them off from any further investment and any further benefit they can do to the American economy.”

Johnson, who also runs ImmigrationProf, a blog dedicated to immigration law, continued, “It’s short sighted to deny students who have staked a claim here, and can contribute here, access on the same terms as other residents to public universities.”

The blow left Georgina wounded but not broken.

“WE PROVIDED THEM A K-12 EDUCATION, AND WE INVESTED IN THEM, AND THEN WE’RE CUTTING THEM OFF FROM ANY FURTHER INVESTMENT AND ANY FURTHER BENEFIT THEY CAN DO TO THE AMERICAN ECONOMY.” —Kevin R. Johnson, dean and professor of public interest law and Chicana/o studies at the University of California–Davis School of Law “I never doubted that I would graduate from my high school,” she said. “I never had a second thought of ‘maybe one day.’

No, I was going to go to college. That was set.” Georgina transformed her desperation into full-blown activism, using anger as an outlet for change. “I said ‘Fine, I’ll just organize whatever. I don’t need school.’ So that’s where I got a lot of my experience, through community organizing and doing civil disobedience actions,” she said.

Today, surrounded by Syracuse students chatting across tables and textbooks, Georgina rubs the dark circles under her eyes after a night of intense studying. She looks through her résumé on her laptop. The list points out fragments of Perez’s life spent on the frontlines of action: graduated from high school in May 2007, became a fulltime worker at the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights in January 2011, created the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance (GUYA) in April 2011, arrested that same month, accepted into Freedom University in 2011, and enrolled at Syracuse University in 2012.

The road to Freedom University, an organization created by five professors at the University of Georgia months after Perez’s Courtland Street rally, is the most significant among Georgina’s long list of political efforts—one that would eventually hand her the education she desperately fought for. Formed in 2011 in Athens, Ga., Free-

dom University serves undocumented students, and was named after the alternative free schools created during the civil rights movement in the 1960s for black students. As one of the first of 40 students invited to attend the organization’s weekly college-level Sunday courses, which cover subjects from Latin American history to literature, Georgina finally received a free chance at an education.

Betina Kaplan, a Spanish professor at UGA and one of Freedom University’s founders, observed Georgina’s hardened perspective on immigrant rights, as well as her admirable sense of dignity during the organization’s first meeting.

“I remember in the first meeting, one student from Athens, after listening to Georgina, said, ‘You know I really want to be like you,’ and my thought in the meeting was, ‘Me too,’” Kaplan said. “When I grow up I want to be just like Georgina.”

After spending months in the Freedom University classroom, the organization’s board of advisors, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz and professors from Yale and Brown, offered Perez a new opportunity. From 2011 to 2012, Freedom University transfered students from their makeshift classroom to the hallways of accredited schools across the nation. Chandra Mohanty, a women’s and gender studies professor at Syracuse and an active member of Freedom University’s board of advisors, successfully transferred three students there, including Perez.

As a dual major in Latin American studies and women’s and gender studies, Perez feels a million miles away from the political turmoil in Georgia that brought her here, but daily Facebook updates of deportation alerts, lower-priority cases, and unjustifiable detainments keep her in the loop.

Recently, the case of Miguel Antonio, a detained father, remained at the top of her feed, along with a number for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and a ready-made script asking for Antonio’s release. “Can you please make a 30-second call on behalf of Miguel?” it read. Eventually, he was released.

Cases like Antonio’s influenced Perez’s final project for her Latina feminist theories class, something she hoped would inspire activism at Syracuse. Months earlier, she shared her own plight with the class. The 10th person to speak, she shifted slightly

In this April 5, 2011 photo, undocumented immigrant Georgina Perez sits in the back of a police car after her arrest during a protest to bring attention to rights for undocumented immigrants in Atlanta.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

and moved forward in her desk chair as she clasped her hands. With her brown hair pulled tightly into a bun, she smiled. “Hey guys, my name is Georgina Perez and I, um, actually forgot to bring something in,” professor Jackie Cuevas quickly mouths a silent “It’s okay” two seats down.

“But I’m actually wearing a shirt that’s kind of like a cultural artifact,” she said. “It kind of represents, I guess, all of this.” She motioned across the white graphic letters juxtaposed against her black T-shirt.

Two days before, Cuevas asked the class to bring in a cultural artifact that represented a personal journey. So far, 10 students had become five-minute storytellers, relaying stories about Mami’s homecooked paella and holding up tribal-printed pencil cases reminiscent of traditional garb seen in old family photos.

Perez moved forward to show the letters on her black T-shirt. The words “I am undocumented,” broken apart syllable-by-syllable, lay across her chest.

While her classmates were moved by her journey, her outspoken attitude about activism remains at odds with much of the Syracuse student body. With her past rooted in activism, it’s difficult connecting with peers who cannot understand the political upheaval that defines her life.

“I don’t think people care,” Georgina said.

“With the students here? I don’t think they really care.”

Mohanty said Perez’s lack of connection with fellow classmates makes sense. For an undocumented student like Perez, activism Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress | 27

is life. For most other students, life is defined by complacency.

“I feel like Georgina is one of those people who have to be tough in order to make it here, because this place is not set up for supporting students like her,” Mohanty said.

“It’s not like you could just go to a sorority, because people don’t get where you’re from or what you’re doing, especially if you’re an activist around these issues.”

Kaplan thinks there’s a difference between UGA and Freedom University students.

“They have a very clear idea of why they are in class, which is quite different from students in regular four-year universities.

They know what they have to lose if they are not in class,” Kaplan said.

Georgina credits the success of the April 2011 Atlanta demonstration with precise planning. The group confused authorities for hours.

“They fucked up because they didn’t know who could touch us,” she said. With hired lawyers on hand, extensive research on im-

migration laws, and an unwavering attitude towards ICE agents while detained, Perez outsmarted the resistance. “It lasted for hours because they were freaking out. They didn’t know what to do,” Perez said with a smile and a shrug. Given the combination of fearless, tactful organizing by a nationwide network of youth-led groups, including GUYA, the potential for groundbreaking change lies in the hands of DREAMers, dedicated allies and foot soldiers like Georgina.

“Without grassroots pressure, President Obama and Congress are unlikely to enact any meaningful immigration reform, but the activists can’t work alone,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, assistant professor at the Capital University Law School and creator of the popular blog crImmigration. “They have to have legislators who are willing to listen to what the activists are telling them to do.”

With the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals passed last summer, which promised the government would not deport an

undocumented immigrant for two years after their application was accepted, a permanent change in legislation for undocumented students across the nation may be within reach. Even with news of the Obama administration granting 154,404 such applications as of January, Georgina remains unfazed by the political change.

“When I started to get involved, I did everything by law like signing petitions, writing letters—all that shit. When I saw all these senators not give a shit about us, Democratic or Republican, that’s when I realized, ‘Fuck this,’” she said.

Whether or not a change in undocumented youth policies will pass in the next year, Georgina remains dedicated to finding justice for students living on the border of educational rights.

—This article by Daisy Becerra originally appeared in Jerk, a publication at Syracuse University that receives funding and training as a member of the Generation Progress journalism network.

Find more cartoons from Matt Bors and other artists at genprogress.org.

How Ending The War On Drugs

Could Curb Gun Violence

(iStockPhoto)

On the same day that the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on assault rifles, background checks, and gun rights, 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was shot to death on the South Side of Chicago. No one outside her neighborhood would have heard of Hadiya if she weren’t exceptional: an honors student, a majorette who marched in President Obama’s inaugural parade. But the cause of her death—reportedly gang violence, striking someone too young to die—is unexceptional.

When we talk about gun violence, we talk about mental health and high-capacity magazines because we want to stop the rare but attention-grabbing mass shootings in middle-class suburbs. We talk less about the gun violence that claims young people in our impoverished inner cities as a matter of routine.

But we need to be talking about the kind of commonplace brutality most of us could never imagine, and about the drug prohibition that feeds it. We need to ask ourselves: Could ending the war on drugs be one of our best weapons in preventing gun violence?

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Jim Gierach, a former Chicago-area prosecutor, notes that 80 percent of homicides in Chicago are gang-related. “And what’s the business of gangs? Obviously, drugs,” he told Generation Progress. “We can change drug policy. ... It’s the way to reduce violence that’s easy, the one that’s obvious.”

It’s Black Markets 101, experts said: Drug prohibition breeds gun violence. A prohibited substance, especially an addictive one, can yield tremendous profits for organizations that can afford the many costs associated with smuggling. By definition, you can’t get legal protections to sell an illegal product. And when high profits are at stake and the courts are out of the picture, justice is often administered through violence.

“Black market trading routes are somewhat equal-opportunity,” said Trevor Burrus, a research fellow with the Cato Institute. “A black market route for drugs can become a black market route for guns. It’s difficult to quantify, but unquestionably a huge factor.”

Studies show that the black market for alcohol during Prohibition led to increased homicides—despite the fact that alcohol consumption, which is correlated with murder, went down. Homicides dropped by about half not long after Prohibition’s repeal, but thanks largely to the war on drugs, the late 20th century saw another spike in the murder rate.

Four decades and and $1.5 trillion later, the United States’ war on drugs has not only failed to reduce illegal drug abuse, it has failed to ensure the safety of our major cities and our young people.

Criminologist Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie Mellon University wrote in a 2011 report that more punitive sentences for drug offenders came into fashion in the 1980s and 1990s, when the crack violence epidemic raged and politicians feared being called “soft on crime.” But as career criminals went off to serve long sentences, younger replacements stepped up—young enough to have much poorer impulse control with the guns they carried for protection from robbers. The number of gun homicides perpetrated by teens and youth under the age of 24 quickly skyrocketed.

“If we arm kids because they’re in the drug business, we arm them for every purpose,” Gierach said. An argument or a score-settling that should mean a black eye could mean a bullet instead.

The drug war is full of paradoxes. More intense law enforcement activity often leads to higher drug gang violence. Countries with more punitive illegal drug policies, namely the United States, have much higher levels of drug use than more permissive countries.

But one of the worst consequences of drug prohibition is no paradox: The more young

people of color who enter the criminal justice system because of drug charges, the more who are likely to stay there.

The “land of the free” is now the home of the world’s largest prison population, and the war on drugs is partly to blame. Incarceration rates, after staying fairly stable for 50 years, increased exponentially starting in 1980. Nonviolent drug offenders are jailed at 10 times the rate they were 30 years ago, yet other types of crime haven’t seen nearly as dramatic a jump.

High-crime neighborhoods, which are disproportionately black and Latino, tend to get more police attention in general, and so it may come as no surprise that black Americans are wildly overrepresented in both drug arrests and incarcerations. But when police wage a war of choice by sweeping up as many drug offenders as they can find while patrolling for violence, they needlessly upend too many lives.

“Clearly, drug prohibition has led to the extraordinary number of black and Latino youth being arrested in New York City as a result of ‘stop and frisk,’ ” said Aaron Houston, executive director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. NYPD officers frequently stop young men of color to check for weapons and, finding none, perform searches for drugs that can allegedly border on sexual assault.

While most of the staggering 1.2 million yearly arrests for drug possession, especially marijuana, won’t result in a jail sentence, a drug arrest can still ruin a life.

According to a report by the Drug Policy Alliance, many young offenders will pay the fine on a summons, without realizing they are pleading guilty and establishing a criminal record. Worse, they might forget about a court date and end up with an arrest warrant. Then when it comes time to apply for a job or an apartment, that prior drug conviction pops up, and suddenly they’re out of options. That’s when the cycle of unemployment and poverty begins anew, and the drug trade starts looking like the best game in town.

Many drug policy experts see drug abuse, or the violence it connects to, as a pathogen.

“Addiction is contagious,” said Jeffrey Dhywood, a drug policy researcher and activist. “If you look at hard drugs, people who initiate new users are the abusers and addicts.” Offer free access in a controlled clinical setting for problem users, he argues, and you can rob drug kingpins of key revenue while ensuring that fewer people sell to their friends to subsidize their own habit.

It might seem unthinkable to consider lifting penalties on harder drugs like cocaine and heroin, which cause significant black market violence—yet that is exactly what some suggest. The Transform Drug Policy

Foundation released a detailed report with recommendations for different levels of legalization, from a tobacco-like market for marijuana to strictly controlled clinical settings for the most problematic cocaine and heroin users.

“If the claim is that there are changes in drug policy that would do more good than any plausible changes in gun policy, I’m sure that’s right,” said Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of California–Los Angeles.

But Kleiman, who is highly skeptical of legalizing hard drugs, prefers a sort of punitive vaccination—like the HOPE program, which has cut drug abuse by giving addicts a swift, certain, but short prison sentence of a few days if they fail a drug test. “ ‘Stop the drug war’ could mean changing drug policies to focus enforcement on violence, reduce the number of prisoners, and use the probation and parole system to squeeze drug abuse by requiring drug testing,” Kleiman told Generation Progress.

“But nobody who says ‘Let’s end the drug war’ means that.”

Certainly any path to greater drug legalization in this country would not be an easy one, even with recent marijuana policy shifts in Colorado and Washington.

The worst infection of drug-related violence, of course, is in Latin American countries like Mexico, where cartels openly slaughter people by the thousands. Violence in the United States overall has decreased since the 1990s, which Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron attributes in part to reduced drug war enforcement here— but violence in Mexico has exploded since former president Felipe Calderon declared a war on drugs in 2006. And according to government estimates, the cartels derive up to 60 percent of their revenue from exporting marijuana to the U.S. The Obama administration is less than receptive to legalizing marijuana, even though doing so would likely deal a significant financial blow to cartels and street gangs. But Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina and other Latin American leaders, including Mexican president Pena Nieto, are steadily urging the U.S. to consider drug legalization. Many of these leaders even appeared in a prominent anti-prohibition documentary, narrated by Morgan Freeman and featuring former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

For now, the conversation about gun violence is likely to remain focused primarily on guns. But momentum is building among world leaders, criminologists, and young people who insist that starting a real conversation about drug prohibition and its consequences can’t wait.

—Emily Crockett is a reporter and editor for Generation Progress.

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