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Directing the alcohol and drug programs for the State of California has given me a renewed sense of participatory democracy in its most radically effective form -- restoring sanity and hope for upcoming generations of young Californians.
Participating in service-oriented programs is what American democracy is all about. Bringing disenfranchised youth into the watershed of full engagement of their lives heals the wounds brought on by alcohol and drug abuse.
We should not underestimate the epidemic of social alienation currently surging like cancer through the veins of our younger citizens' lives. Our work on the grassroots level in cities and communities around the entire state has boiled this epidemic of estrangement down to four raging symptoms -- teenage drug and alcohol abuse, educational failure, gang involvement, and teen pregnancy.
Kids gripped in the vise of emotionally wrenching primal screams are mortgaging their precious futures by acting out devastating and life-threatening behaviors that are nothing more than dramatic cries for help. They live in fear and isolation, bereft of any significant adult role models. Abandoned emotionally and physically, they are unleashed into the world without a map, without a clue. The pitfalls have pitfalls, and kids without direction are, quite literally, lost souls.
What terrible thing happens to adults that makes them forget what it's like to be young, restless, without roots? What horrible indifference to life's very pulse seeps into an adult's arteries to make him turn away and reject that very young life which is his responsibility? What makes people turn away so perversely from the bouncing bundle of joy they once so warmly embraced at life's onset?
We can't bemoan tired old adult behavior because that would be tired old adult behavior. We don't have time for that kind of sanctimonious whining. We are living in a crisis situation. We need to change urgently and fundamentally the way we think and act.
One of our successes in this regard is the California Mentor Initiative, which is in place throughout the state and flourishing as an essentially healing and guiding principle in the lives of our younger citizens. Isolation is the disease of the young and the disenfranchised, and mentoring is the tool whereby we reintroduce these people to themselves. We have come to realize that the best way to heal the scars of absentee and non-existent parenthood is the return of community. Mentoring is the beginning of community, and the ripple effects from its dynamism are re-sodding the once barren emotional and psychological fields of California's adolescents.
For mentoring to work authentically, people have to step up responsibly. This isn't an exercise in mere altruism or an outgrowth of one's feeling good about himself on any particular day. With its roots firmly planted in ancient time, the birthplace of an actively free citizenship yearning for democracy, mentoring is quite literally a function of society. It is a good citizen's duty, every bit as vital as jury summons, taxpaying or watchful neighborhood vigilance.
It doesn't take much thought to fully understand that mentoring crushes isolation, which is the disease eroding the underpinnings of a healthy society. Mentoring isn't designed as a full-service package equipped with all of life's answers, but it is offered as a creative way to trigger self-reflection and realization. It is a catalyst that helps inspire and motivate a scarred and scared youth toward adulthood. It is a spark that ignites the engine, which will propel youth from the perils of adolescence to the opportunities of maturity.
I like to present the concept of mentoring in as simple terms as possible, because it is a giant phenomenon built with tiny steps. It takes a minimum of effort for an adult role model to nudge himself toward activism, and the fruits of his labor yield maximum results. It is a joyful decision of citizenship that induces one good person to come to the assistance of another good, albeit troubled person.
And mentoring really is as simple, as straightforward, as refreshing, and as wise as saying to a young person: "The goodness in me salutes the goodness in you." That, my friends, is a power-packed salutation that will re-stitch the fabric of California currently at stress and strain under the oppressive weight of the four-headed epidemic hounding our kids. It's time to reclaim what is rightfully ours, and that is our future. It is far better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, and mentoring is the candle and the path to personal maturity and civic responsibility.
There is a chance, already proven, that life can be bright and fun again for once-beleaguered, overly tortured souls. There is a chance, already in action, that young people mired in negativity and unhealthy life choices, can still opt for positive, growth-enhancing, satisfying lifestyles that will free them forever from the chains of slavery.
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