Over the past week, I’ve become obsessed with the Lin-Manuel
Miranda musical “Hamilton.” Not only has it taken the Tony awards by storm (and
has a box office projection of $1 billion!) but it has caused a renewed
interest in the Revolutionary War time period of American history amongst
people my age. Originally, I wrote off this time period as a simply
mythologized and sanitized period that had little relevance now, as most of the
protagonists were white slave-owning men. This musical however showed me that
not all of them were so one-dimensional. The titular character, Alexander
Hamilton, was an orphan from a poverty-riddled town on St. Kitts who eventually
helped found and fund a country, and became the advisor to the president. The
musical highlights the grit of his struggle to come into relevance, discussing
how he threw himself into his reading and writing so as to “not throw away
[his] shot.” As a result of this, he was able to go from having no platform at
all to changing the course of a nation. That honestly inspired me to do the
same. I have an academic mind, this much Baylor has certified. I have a heart
for change, and a passion for making my voice known – as seen through my seven
years of fundraising and lobbying for Invisible Children. This musical of
inspiration came at the perfect point in both my life and in the lives of many.
We’ve just seen Bernie Sanders run on a campaign of equality and empowerment;
while he ultimately was topped by the political establishment, he galvanized
hundreds of thousands from my generation into action. I watched with pride in
my heart as my friends protested outside of the DNC. Though incapacitated by surgery at the time, I joined my friends in spiritual solidarity who marched through the
streets of Baton Rouge. In London, I listened to dear friends recount the
horrors of militarized police reaction to protests in Ferguson. We have seen
young people in the streets and starting grassroots political revolutions. The
so-called “selfie generation” is now organizing to elect populist candidates
starting from their local municipalities on up through national government.
(And all inspired by an old, white, straight, Jewish man from Vermont, at that!) I want
to aid in that revolution. My activist heart yearns to become politically
involved and burns to make my voice heard in the protests. Unlike Hamilton’s
revolution, this will not be one fought by weapons and violence, but rather by
purely using our words and bodies to destabilize the power of oppressors and
those who perpetuate injustice, whoever they might reveal themselves to be. Our
generation is pissed off at racism, at debt bondage, at the exploitation of our
very ecosystem. But rather than merely sitting back and ranting, we’re
organizing. We’re taking the fight to the political arena, from the ground up.
The ultimate hope is that we redefine the institutional structures of power
that have for so long propped up outdated and often violent offices of
oligarchy which have continuously committed officially-sanctioned acts of
violence - whether physical, financial, or emotional - against the poor, immigrants, and minorities. It seems that
circumstances in my life have destined me to be away from this country that I’m
just now learning how to love, for the next year, meaning that I cannot be in
the streets or knocking on doors with my compatriots. I can however be like Hamilton, who spent the
first years of the revolution reading and writing with the purpose of becoming
educated himself and educating the leaders of the revolution. Without ideological
guidance, no revolution can succeed. While I certainly do not profess to have
the ultimate intellectual prowess, I can use my academic training and the
mental facilities at my disposal to help further this revolution in whatever
way I can. I urge you, dear reader, to do the same. Let not your heart be
overwhelmed into a state of inaction. No matter what your current position,
this is one of the most prime points of history for your voice to be heard. Your
voice matters. Your experiences are legitimate. Join the conversation. Join the
protests in the streets. Agitate your elected officials into action through
lobbying (and if they don’t care to respond, find out how you can help elect
new ones.)
Just don’t throw away your shot.
