A View From A Pew: They Not Like Us

Over the past couple of weeks, I have watched our local political landscape unfold in ways that have caused me to pause, reflect, and in some moments shake my head. I’ve watched the maneuvering. I’ve watched the quiet alignments forming. I’ve watched opportunities for conversation come and go without a word being spoken. And if I am honest about what I have witnessed, one thought keeps echoing in my spirit:

They not like us.

Now let me be clear before anyone misunderstands what I’m saying. I am not against young leaders stepping forward. In fact, I celebrate it. I welcome it. I encourage it. Every generation must produce new leadership if a community is going to survive and move forward.

But if I am being honest — and a View From A Pew requires honesty — what I have witnessed lately has left me somewhat disheartened.

Not because young people are running for office, that part I celebrate, but because of the spirit in which some of them are running.

We are trying to help them avoid the same mistakes we already made. We are trying to show them where the landmines are buried. We are trying to share the lessons that came from years — sometimes decades — of organizing, building coalitions, negotiating political realities, and navigating systems that were never designed with us in mind.

But you cannot help someone who refuses to sit at the table long enough to listen, and you cannot guide someone who believes they already know the way.

Too often today I see young candidates stepping into politics not with a spirit of service, but with a hunger for position. Politics becomes less about the people and more about the platform.

It becomes about ego. It becomes about recognition. It becomes about status. Some appear to see public office not as a responsibility to serve but as a steppingstone to the next level of power.

And that mindset is dangerous. Because when leadership becomes about ambition more than accountability, communities eventually pay the price.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the impatience with the process. Some want their first step in public service to be mayor or congressman when there are school boards, community commissions, and local leadership opportunities where real governing skills are built. The process matters. The experience matters.

Real leadership is not built overnight. It is built through experience, discipline, failure, correction, and growth.

Those of us who have walked this road before understand something that only time can teach, politics is not just about winning an election it is about knowing what to do after you win.

It’s about knowing how to navigate budgets, build consensus, manage opposition, and still move the community forward.

Some of the elders that young leaders are so ready to push out to pasture are not obstacles. They are archives of wisdom. They are living libraries of experience. They are roadmaps filled with lessons learned the hard way. But in a moment where impatience sometimes replaces humility, that wisdom can easily be dismissed.

Even hip-hop artist and activist Killer Mike said it plainly when he challenged people to “Plot, Plan, Strategize, Organize, and Mobilize.” Notice the order of those words. Plot. Plan. Strategize. Organize. Mobilize.

Too often today we skip straight to mobilizing without doing the plotting or the planning. And when that happens, movements collapse under the weight of poor preparation.

The sad part about this moment is that among those stepping forward are some individuals who truly have the potential to become outstanding public servants. They have passion. They have energy. They have the courage to step forward.

But passion without preparation can become chaos. Energy without direction can become conflict. And ambition without humility can become ego.

Ego is a powerful drug in politics. It blinds people to wisdom. It convinces them they don’t need counsel. It tells them every suggestion is criticism and every piece of advice is interference. And when ego takes over, unity disappears.

What concerns me most is that in this election cycle we may lose an opportunity to move our community forward — not because we lacked good people, but because we lacked coordination.

Because the truth is this: some of the people who jumped into these races have no real understanding of the process they are entering. They don’t understand the strategy. They don’t understand the coalition-building required to win and govern effectively.

And with just a little direction…with just a little humility…with just a little willingness to listen…the outcome could be entirely different. But guidance only works when it is welcomed.

Still, I refuse to lose hope. Because I believe something important about our community: when the noise settles and the smoke clears, we eventually find our way back to wisdom.

You've heard this before. The younger generation has energy and vision. The older generation has experience and strategy. The real power comes when those two forces work together.

Progress has never been built by one generation alone. It is built when experience reaches back and ambition slows down long enough to listen.

So yes, right now it may feel like they not like us. But perhaps the real challenge of this moment is not proving that one generation is better than the other. The real challenge is figuring out how both generations can stand together — so that the torch of leadership is not dropped in the handoff.

Because leadership has never been about who gets the title. It has always been about who moves the community forward.

And just so we're clear, don't even think about asking me to pass my torch. I'll be more than happy to light your torch so we both can see.