The 2007-2008 Steering Committee convened one last time in NYC this past weekend. Check out our first convening.

Talk about strong, talented leaders who are and will continue to advance progressive values and issues in communities across the nation...Chris, Vicente, Kevin, Ben, Emily, kYm, Jess, Tobi, Erin, Alex and Zach are such innovative, bold and exciting leaders.

Day 2, Front Line Leaders Training.

As the progressive movement matures and becomes more transparent about its mission, vision and values, it's the emerging generation that will have to embody those values for progress to be made. It's encouraging to see so many established elected officials and leaders in the movement actively listening to this group of emerging talent and it's clear that they understand the implications of this training and this moment in time. Andrew Gillum, director of the Young Elected Officials Network and City Commissioner of Tallahassee, Fl noted: It is our job and it is our time to "Make good on MLK's promise of a race neutral society". In addition to equality, justice, choice and rule of law fully realized in this country, it is our collective responsibility to move toward those goals and preparing my generation, the next generation, of leaders is a critical step in that direction.

I am sitting in a room in Denver this weekend courtesy of a program called Front Line Leaders Academy, run by the Young Elected Officials Network. It is the 5th training in the program's history designed specifically for a group of young progressives who are interested in someday running for elected office. As you might expect, there is a lot of talent and ambition in this room. As you might expect me to say, there is a lot of passion and optimism in the room as well. And you'd be right- but it's more than a trite snapshot of the future of the progressive movement that I'm privileged to witness this weekend.

Tallahassee, Florida City Commissioner, Andrew Gillum and Georgia State Representative Alisha Thomas Morgan are the leaders of the Young Elected Officials Network, a program of People For the American Way Foundation.

This weekend they hosted the second of four three-day workshops for the 20 Fellows enrolled in the Front Line Leaders Academy.

The Front Line Leaders Academy works with young, unknown leaders and provides trainings on a wide range of leadership development and political skills.

Each leadership development class of FLLA engages in a series of face-to-face workshops and hands-on, interactive sessions facilitated by successful local leaders and industry experts. The program also involves members of the Young Elected Officials Network who serve as instructors, advisors and evaluators for the Front Line Leaders Academy. Between bi-monthly sessions, Fellows work on training-related assignments and receive customized instruction to further develop their skill set through the internet and conference calls.

Read more to learn more about the program and what the Fellows learned this weekend!

Last year alone, the Radical Right invested $48 million in 10 primary youth organizations working to support the next generation of ultra-conservative leaders.

Recent examples of this investment in action include campaigns against college courses that conflict with the right-wing agenda, as well as a circulated "blacklist" of more than one hundred college professors accused of making "anti-American" statements.  Additionally, the Radical Right has sponsored workshops with titles such as, "How to Stop Liberals in Their Tracks," and ensures that these students have internships, fellowships, and jobs waiting for them when they graduate.  

The conservative investment in leadership development over the past 30 years has paid off. A powerful network of young ultra-conservatives fill the state houses, the halls of Congress, the executive branch and the courts; they are supported by community leaders, skilled organizers, academics and media personalities that help dominate the debate. The leaders in whom they have invested in are familiar names in the public dialogue.

In 1970, a man named Karl Rove was head of the National College Republicans. In 1981, Grover Norquist took the reins. And in 1983, it was Ralph Reed.

Progressive forces have not matched the growing presence of the Right on campuses--and it is critical that we do so. It's not a matter of starting from scratch, but of catalyzing and supporting the untapped potential of young progressive leaders and sustaining their connection to and increasing their roles within the progressive movement.

It has become imperative to focus our attention on leadership development as a critical issue in the larger effort of strengthening the progressive movement.

Scaling up nascent leadership development programs is central to addressing the changing ideological shifts of young people, the lack of effective opportunities to reach young people and the need to build a sustainable, long-term progressive leadership pipeline within a current climate of shrinking resources.

So i was browsing the new democratic journal democracy: a journal of



ideas and was reading a piece by andrei cherni, the youngest white house speechwriter ever, and was really struck by his closing paragraph:

On CNN that September day in 2001, I peddled one of our nation's favorite myths: that in every generation, Americans have risen to the challenge with which we were faced. The truth is that while we wish that this were so, it simply is not. After President Abraham Lincoln's death and the end of the Civil War, America's failure to meet the test of Reconstruction sent this country careening off into the tragedy of a century of racial subjugation. In the 1920s, the United States walked away from a complicated world, thereby allowing Hitler to rise and shaky European democracies to fall. Our greatest generations-the ones that met the challenges they were faced with-did not automatically swell up, fully formed. They were summoned forth by leaders who called Americans to the best angels of their nature. The United States did not have those leaders during Reconstruction or the Roaring Twenties. We have not had them yet in the war on terror. There is still time for them; for while it is certainly not "too soon," it is also, hopefully, not too late.

i think we'd all agree that these last few years america, and in



particular young people, have felt particularly adrift and leaderless.  all the while we're developing into potentially the most influential generation since the greatest generation.

It just so happened that the day i read the cherni piece i also



stumbled upon sen. obama's speech from the take back america



conference.  now sen. obama has gotten some criticism lately from some(notably david sirota of the nation in this article here.  and while i agree with a few of the points i cant help but swoon a bit from this closing from obama (highly recommend you read the whole thing here:

We are here tonight because we believe that in this country, we have it within our power to say "yes" to those questions - to forge our own destiny - to begin the world anew.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is our time.

Our time to make a mark on history.

Our time to write a new chapter in the American story.

Our time to leave our children a country that is freer and kinder,



more prosperous and more just than the place we grew up.

And then someday, someday, if our kids get the chance to stand where



we are and look back at the beginning of the 21st century, they can



say that this was the time when America renewed its purpose.

They can say that this was the time when America found its way.

They can say that this was the time when America learned to dream again.

Thank you.

so what do y'all think...do you believe we'll rise to the challenge?