Ohio is not a favorable place to live if you're a young person.
Many of us cannot find work, and the few of us who do find ourselves in unpaid internships or low paying jobs within the service industry. Just ask the college graduate who serves you Starbucks coffee in the morning or the waiter who serves you dinner.
Coupled with a marketplace that seems determined to exploit the emerging youth generation, young people are now faced with the realization that Governor John Kasich intends to greatly increase tuition, thereby making education inaccessible to working families and leaving middle-class students in debt to banks for the next 30 years.
One would imagine this situation would render students in Ohio hopeless to the conditions that shape our lives. However, developments during the past six months have brought about an entirely different context.
Students in England, Greece and Italy mobilized massive demonstrations. Young people in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East are in the process of staging revolutions that will fundamentally transform the way people look at their governments and their own lives.
In Wisconsin, thousands of students are pouring into the streets to oppose tuition hikes and government attacks on unions. These acts were unthinkable six months ago. What we're experiencing is a global youth awakening, a time when young people have decided they've had enough and are prepared to stand up and fight for their futures.
Already in Ohio, students have set up committees at the major state universities to oppose the attacks on young people and our families. We're holding conference calls, organizing on the Internet and preparing mobilizations.
We will not stand by while the governor attempts to throw Ohio's children into the jungle. We're ready to stand with labor if labor is ready to stand with the students.
We're prepared for a spring Ohio has never seen before. The youth of Ohio will write our future.
Will Klatt is a 2009 Ohio University graduate and resides in Columbus.
