Elizabeth Hovde Nov. 13:Young people must help enact change

Whether he wanted it to happen or not, John Mayer’s song, “Waiting On the World to Change,” was invoked by random people this year to promote voter participation among youth in general and President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign in particular.

It should be noted that Mayer, like many other artists and celebrities, endorsed Obama and believes the world might in fact change now with his leadership. In an Oct. 29 pro-Obama blog on The Huffington Post, Mayer wrote: “Just when I’d thought my only role as an adult was to help shoulder the nation through its darkest days … Obama gives me the feeling that I could be alive to witness one of the most brilliant upturns in a country’s history.”

I am a John Mayer fan. I’ve been to his concerts and own his music. I got to meet him years ago at a Portland radio station. He is bright, talented, interesting. But when “Waiting On the World to Change” hit the airwaves, long before any Obama fever, I bristled at its message.

The first verse follows:

“Me and all my friends

We’re all misunderstood

They say we stand for nothing and

There’s no way we ever could

Now we see everything that’s going wrong

With the world and those who lead it

We just feel like we don’t have the means

To rise above and beat it”

The lyrics go on to express an anti-war sentiment and the opinion that the media parrot the Bush administration’s line. Mayer sings that young people are powerless to beat “the system”.

One version of the chorus goes:

“So we keep waiting

Waiting on the world to change

It’s not that we don’t care,

We just know that the fight ain’t fair …”

The song reeks of apathy and laziness. With the youth vote playing a healthy role in Obama’s election, I’m anxious to see if the young people who turned out in record numbers are going to keep “waiting for the world to change” or actually start changing it.

Changing the world or even one’s situation and circumstances requires more than registering to vote, putting on a campaign T-Shirt and showing up on Election Day.

Youth participation at the ballot box is encouraging, but in other areas, young people continue to ditch their obligations and responsibilities to this society in dramatic ways. One huge example is with health care. The health care system is definitely broken, and young voters are quick to reiterate this and place blame in numerous places. But young people haven’t been as vocal about their own failures concerning health care.

In Washington, it’s estimated that people ages 19-34 comprise 51 percent of the state’s uninsured. Many young people choose to go without basic provisions but seem able to finance indulgences such as iPhones. When I visited Olympia this year for a meeting with public officials, even Gov. Chris Gregoire and Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler expressed frustration that their own, educated adult children thought they could do without insurance.

State Sen. Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee, has lobbied for a law that would help the problem. It would permit insurance carriers to design an affordable plan for this age group. But many lawmakers aren’t on board because of how it would allow insurers to veer away from current over-regulation.

Even young people who legitimately can’t afford health care premiums (regardless of the availability of the state’s Basic Health Plan and other helpful safety nets) should be getting behind legislation such as Parlette’s. Young people should be exploring all sorts of ways to change their communities through government, volunteerism, philanthropy and, most important, personal responsibility. Young people need to become true agents of change, not mere groupies.

Civic involvement is more than just voting, and we all have an ability to help change the world no matter who sits in the White House. When it comes to doing good, waiting shouldn’t be an option.

Elizabeth Hovde’s column of personal opinion appears each Thursday. Reach her at ehovde@earthlink.net.