Answering phones, posting flyers, and handing out buttons all are important contributions. In the 1960s, I saw my own children and their friends change our nation's policies by working against the Vietnam War, supporting civil rights, and organizing the first Earth Day. And during our negotiations at Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Begin was ready to leave without reaching an agreement until we shared pictures of our grandchildren and discussed the impact our decisions would have on their world. TAP is an effort to help Atlanta's communities organize, to listen to their needs, and to work with them to find resources and devise solutions to some of our most troubling urban ills. Chief among those problems is the lack of hope you describe.
Young people are a big part of our solution.
Through an offshoot called FutureForce, TAP is teaching the same young people who might be doing poorly in school or running into trouble with the law to instead become leaders in their communities and schools. They are helping spread the word that if we each tackle a small part of our nation's troubles and work together to solve them, we can and will change things for the better. It can be discouraging to see so many challenges facing us today, and you may not easily see what you can do to help. Every day at school we try to be peacemakers. At school we have a peacemaking class.