What a 17 Year Old Makes in America

Kenosha. 

A small town in Illinois with industrial plants, strip malls, a ULINE branch, corn fields, forest preserves and beautiful rivers is now the focal point of the racial disparities in America. For our family, it was where we would stop at Starbucks at 6:30am to fill up on caffeine for a long day at a swim meet in neighboring Pleasant Prairie at the RecPlex, a gorgeous facility with an olympic pool, fitness facilities and indoor ice rink. We could get to Kenosha from Chicago in an hour flying up I-94, the Edens Expressway.

Yesterday, a Chicagoland friend posted a picture of an armored military vehicle on the expressway through Illinois captioned, "Counted like 20 headed north on 294 - probably to Kenosha WI Praying for peaceful night."

Today, I walked into the room to wake up my girls. The 17 year old is asleep on her camping mat, twisted up with a sleeping bag, and the one who turns 16 next week is stretched out on the bed in blissful rest. Seeing their peaceful expressions eases my soul. I need this moment every morning, because being a parent today is a high anxiety job. In fact, so many of my daughters' Gen Z and Millennial friends know this; they know it so well that quite a number have already decided they don't want to raise children of their own. They refuse to raise children in the world that we are making.

Wise words from contemporary artist Makoto Fujimura come to mind as I think of what a 17 year old makes in America today. He writes from the perspective of an art teacher asking children in a classroom, "What do you want to make today?" His analysis of this question is critical for our world at this very moment - our world that has been concentrated through the lens of Kenosha, Wisconsin where a 17 year old took a military-like long gun and shot and killed Kenosha residents, 26 year old Anthony Huber and 36 year old Joseph Rosenbaum (donate towards his burial expenses). On August 26, 2020, this 17 year old, self-identified "Militia member" from Antioch, Illinois chose what he would make: tragedy.

In my classroom, when I asked five, 15-year-old girls what their ideal qualities would be in a future spouse, their top two comments were that the person would smell nice and wasn't addicted to video games. Priorities relating to being a good person or sharing their faith convictions came after that. Young people in our country are under attack, and when a 17-year-old in America cannot be a maker of creativity, they will become a maker of destruction. According to those who know him, the Kenosha shooter viewed himself as a helper of the police and a good citizen. The Militia Movement intentionally persuades young people towards these ideologies, calling them "public defenders". How many hours a day did this 17 year old young man spend firing a weapon virtually? Is it possible that my daughter's friends have played video games with this Illinois high schooler who is now facing criminal charges, including reckless and intentional homicide? 

Radicalization is the risk that our society faces when young people are not given ways to be makers of good. As Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries has claimed in his work with youth in gangs, "Nothing stops a bullet like a job." Narratives that demonize one group while elevating another dominate the Gen Z and Millenial social media themes, and it goes in many ways to extremes.

Everyday, my daughters engage in controversial conversations with their "followers" and "friends" about content in social media stories and the things that members of their generation are "making." The thread of hopelessness is increasingly woven through these digital platforms.

What used to be images of dance, art, food, the park, the lake, humor, music, and other joyous, young ventures are now frequently political, accusatory, and demanding posts: the demands of a generation who believes that they have been robbed. This sentiment might be the singular point of agreement for the fractured views of Generation Z: regardless of their ideology they feel the world has wronged them.

Art Professor Fujimura explains, "To ask 'what do you want to make today?' is not an idealist's escape from reality. To ask 'what do you want to make today?' is a quiet resistance against the destructive fears dominating our world; refusing to submit to the inevitability of corruption in our ideologies."

Parents, many of you are tirelessly guiding your children towards being makers of creativity. This is creative resistance and a powerful way of protest because it supports thriving in spite of our society's failures. My heart soars when I see videos posted of my family and friends' children making music, art, playing sports, writing, reading books, going hiking and camping, performing in theater and enjoying the greatest of pleasures in life, like friendship.

Gen Z, do not feel guilty if you are not posting what is trending! Justice is not a short-lived trend. We need to turn our culture upside down. Post the beauty that you are MAKING today! Make things that stand in the gap for those who are less privileged than ourselves. I am not asking you to ignore injustices, racism, gender violence and misogyny, or the mockery that is our media. No! I am calling upon MAKERS OF CREATIVITY to be the louder voices, louder than the makers of destruction.