Teens call for cooperation and end to polarized politics
About 200 young activists hold event to seek unity, respect and teamwork
They could have stayed home to hang out with friends or binge watch Netflix. But about 200 politically inclined teens from across Houston on Sunday donned blazers and ties, power suits and heels, and headed to Bellaire High School.
In yet another example of young people demanding change and prodding status-quo adults to action, the Houston students organized a “Day of Unity” to try to answer the pressing question: In a political climate as polarized as this one, how can people respect and listen to each other — and actually work together?
“We’re the greatest stakeholders in our future,” said event organizer Adam Hoffman, a 17year-old senior from Robert M. Beren Academy, who like many attendees is looking forward to the day he can cast his first ballot.
Hoffman, an ardent Republican who has worked on Greg Abbott’s guber-
natorial campaign and Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign in 2016, said he came up with the idea for the event after attending a pluralism conference last year and seeing the tense nationwide political discourse seep into his school.
Most recently, for example, Hoffman, who opposes gun control, said he decided not to participate in a national walkout to protest school shootings — a move that many of his classmates criticized.
“Things are toxic … it just created tension and hostility between me and other students,” he said.
He contacted the Texas High School Democrats and the Texas Junior State of America, and over several months, they planned Sunday’s conference together.
“I thought it was a good idea, given how divided the nation is after the 2016 election,” said Alex Kontoyiannis, a Bellaire High School junior who co-chairs the Texas chapter of the Texas High School Democrats. The adults “can’t find common ground.”
Cruz attended, as did Mayor Sylvester Turner. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, also spoke, along with the chairs of Texas’ Democratic and Republican parties. Each offered bits of advice, and some took questions from the students. Over the rest of the day, students peeled off into breakout sessions with leaders of the Houston City Council, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups.
In a 45-minute speech, Cruz advised students to “laugh, love, understand, tolerate, and reason.”
He suggested trying to approach people across the aisle with a sense of humor and respect.
“If you’re going to try to persuade them, saying, ‘Dude, you’re an idiot,’ probably isn’t going to work,” he said.
Turner, meanwhile, urged students to focus on facts, rather than partisan arguments.
“When the facts no longer matter, when the truth is no longer important, then we have all lost,” he said. “I hope you believe if people present facts, the truth, and you find them persuasive, you will have the courage and stand and say, “yes,” or the courage to say, “no,” but not just do it because of party affiliation.”
Castro said one reason Washington has become so polarized is because of aggressively gerrymandered districts.
“Things have become so polarized because they’ve been built that way,” he said.
Meg Kodali, a 16 year-old Bellaire sophomore in favor of stricter gun control laws, said she appreciated being able to hear conservatives’ views on that issue, and after hearing about how an armed bystander in Sutherland Springs had helped stop a massacre at the town’s church, was reconsidering her views somewhat.
“It was a good opportunity to come together and learn,” she said.
Zoe Nanson, 17, a Carnegie Vanguard High School junior and a member of the Junior States of America, said she appreciated the chance for students to meet and interact with their elected officials.
“There’s just kind of a lack of togetherness, a lack of cooperation in our elected officials, it seems like, especially when it comes to passing things like legislation,” said Nanson, who took to the streets Saturday with thousands of other teens in the #March For Our Lives rally in downtown Houston.
“What this is doing, more than anything, is promoting unity — promoting people to understand and listen to the other side before making any judgments,” she said. “I definitely don’t think it’s ideal for young people to have to be the people that are driving legislation forward in this country … It would be very, very nice if the people we elected to do that were doing a better job of getting that passed.”
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