by Mark Takefman Photo by Artem Beliaikin

When I worked with a foundation in NYC we held a meeting of Executive Directors from various youth organizations.  One ED told us that the youth they were involved with “had been doing pollution/trash cleanup along rivers and other areas.  They (the youth) said that they did not want to get involved with politics for dealing with these problems. They thought that politics was too complex, corrupted, and insurmountable. They wanted to do something they felt they could see the direct results of their efforts like picking up trash along the river.”

We understood their lament, getting immediate results was a good feeling and politics, well … we all have a certain bias when it come to dealing with politicians.  However we told them that if they didn’t get involved in politics it would be very likely that their grandchildren would be doing the same cleanup of the same rivers and environment they are doing today.