Zachary Yentzer (Arizona State) on the Next Greatest Generation

I was having lunch with E.J. Dionne and other Millennial Fellows from around the country a few weeks ago when he mentioned this offhand to our small group, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about its potential since.

To suggest that we could be the Next Greatest Generation is a high calling. The first Greatest Generation, coined by Tom Brokaw in the 1990s, grew up during the Great Depression facing a world war and the reshaping of the global order. They were a generation that faced fear and overcame it. They grew up during hunger and depression, and survived. They balanced war and rumors of war with an undying passion to create, desire, and invent. They had, as President Roosevelt proclaimed, “a rendezvous with destiny.”

And so does this Millennial generation. In the face of wars, recessions, and global controversies, we’re showing ourselves to be a potent class of change-makers, innovators, society-builders.

Already, we’ve taken down corruption at the end of our camera lenses and linked our world seamlessly together through Facebook and YouTube. The problems of our brothers and sisters half a world away are now our problems, to be solved together.

We’re the most global generation the world has ever seen, born into an era where speaking multiple languages and traveling from an early age is not the exception, but the rule. We desire to be intensely global and hyper-social, profoundly in touch with the world around us.

We’re a diverse and accepting generation, open to different viewpoints and perspectives, passionate about the factual and substantive over the irrational and superficial. We have become less color-focused and more issue-sensitive.

We’re a generation that sees democracy and security as less of a political game and more of a human condition. We’ve found ways to catalyze social media to keep our leaders accountable and our peers engaged in the process of peace and prosperity.

But for all this, we’re far from perfect, and not yet where we could be. As Election Day nears, it’s a time again for American Millennials in particular to review how far we have yet to go and become intentional about finding the tough answers to the hard questions. Research shows that we are still divided along religious lines, that politics affect religion like never before, and that we still haven’t discovered the role of faith in the public sphere. We’re still struggling to create a consistent culture of democracy and voter engagement, while our politicians are left unaccountable on many issues. And we’ve yet to fully overcome our prejudices regarding race, ethnicity, and gender.

It’s with this introspection that I find great value in Mr. Dionne’s suggestion; our generation needs leadership to move forward, a core to delineate an agenda and propose solutions to these greatest challenges. Not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because it is necessary. This leadership will decide whether we are a generation on a rendezvous with destiny or just the next one to go by. Fellow Millennials, our nation and our world are looking to us to become and lead the Next Greatest Generation. It’s our move.