Our first responsibility as radicals is to create a knowledge, individual and then social, that what we are doing is not enough. Then we must imagine something better. —William Appleton Williams

     I believe we must cope courageously and practically . . . with the here and now, our feet on this ground where we now live. But nothing less than the most radical imagination will carry us beyond this place, beyond the mere struggle for survival, to that lucid recognition of our possibilities which will keep us impatient, and unresigned to mere survival. —Adrienne Rich

Over thirty years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about a dream that he had envisioned. This speech has been upheld as the epitome of leadership, social progress, and freedom. I acknowledge the importance of all those elements and add to them the idea of radicalism. King was a radical because he empowered people to look forward to a future they had never before imagined. He encouraged them to risk everything that they had known and try something entirely new. But in that speech, King was adamant about the fact that his dream must somehow coincide with the traditional "American Dream". And it is this coexistence that I take issue with. I, like King, have a dream for the future, but unlike King, my dream involves leaders that are willing to go against convention and reshape the entire image of that American Dream. King was a radical in many aspects, but we must now be willing to go further.

America is supposedly the great "land of opportunity", and it is venerated for its classless social structure. But that classless label must be recognized as a great affront to the intelligence of the American people. We may not live under the constricts of a class system that is pronounced and forced upon us openly, but our class system is every bit as prominent and definitely more dangerous. Dangerous because it is not recognized, because we go through our lives anesthetized to the pain and oppression that surrounds us daily. This anesthetization is a gradual process that begins from our earliest moments as we identify with the norms of society and the goals we hope to achieve in our lives. We are taught, subconsciously, that the best lifestyle is the most wealthy lifestyle. We are given heroes that represent the materialistic and greed-oriented values that seem to control our society so completely. We are told that those people who do not succeed in their economic strivings fail by their own faults. We are taught to ate and blame the victim and pardon the victimizer. And all of these lessons are taught under the guise of acting "for the good of the country".

Perhaps this lesson is best taught through the example of our presidency. We have seen countless presidents, some more successful than others, who all seem to be carbon copies of each other. They are all middle to upper-middle class white males who have gone to the best Ivy League schools and who all claim to be radically different from their predecessors. We see that the highest office in the land is to be held by the best representative of this country, and that representative has invariably been of one race, class, and gender stratification. There is no statute or amendment to the constitution that says that the president must hold these certain qualities, but we choose them all the same.

Beyond their social classifications, they all also proclaim that they are going to change things in this country. They reassure Americans that they are going the be the light in the darkness, the guide out of the forest, the individual who is going to make a difference in our miserable world. And the really humorous thing is that we believe them. Even as the terms roll by without any visible change in our poverty levels, our problems with illiteracy and educational deficiencies, and the continuing struggle against racism, sexism, and other social issues which plague us assiduously. When will we realize that true change comes only from a radical imagination? Until we can envision a radical, earth-shaking difference in our world, we will never accomplish any forward progress. We will remain stagnant, and we will become increasingly apathetic, declining until we have nothing left to mourn, much less improve.

Our future leaders do not exist in some distant reality. They are our peers, our contemporaries, our sons and daughters. But we can no longer accept the same unsuccessful solutions to problems that continue to be handed down through generations. Our future exists in the here and now. The leaders of tomorrow must be capable of seeing that what we are doing today is not enough. If we really want to change the educational system in this country, we must be willing to make radical decisions without regard to personal agendas or motivations. Too often, our presidents are more concerned with their political connections and responsibilities to their fellow lawmakers, rather than feeling the pull of responsibility to the American people. Why not drastically reduce our armed forces budget and invest that money in the education of our young people? The bumper stickers say it well when they proclaim that education is the only true investment in the future that holds no risks. But those changes cannot be made because of the political ties and conventions that make radical decision making an impossibility.

What we need is someone with courage, someone willing to step up to the overwhelming problem of injustice in this country. Our society is taxingly paralyzed by the incredible fear of change. The biggest challenge facing the young leaders of our future is overcoming this paralytic fear and forcing the American people to envision a future for themselves and their surroundings. We must make everyone see that mere survival is not good enough. We must do everything we can to encourage that longing for something more. For a little while, we must be perpetually discontent. At present, we praise our leaders when they are able to maintain the status quo: when they add only marginally to the deficit, only damage a mild portion of the environment, only allow a small percentage of our children to go without adequate education or opportunity, only allow a minority of the population to be oppressed by poverty. But we must realize that all those marginal additions have added up and will continue to accrue interest until we are overcome by our problems.

What we need is a Radical Envisioning Day. We need to succumb to our childlike tendencies and allow our imaginations to run wild. Take out a box of crayons, savor the pungent scent of wax and paper, absorb the colors, and allow your dream to create itself. And then we each need to send our visions to our local congressperson. Additionally, we need to carry our visions into the polls when we are faced with a decision to choose someone who seems safe or someone who just might be a radical. It is a practical necessity. We must be willing to step out of the norms and conventions of politics and make the choices that will enable us to see a real difference in our world. Until then, we will remain trapped in our apathy and our fears, constantly complaining without any course of action. We can see a difference in this world, we too can have a dream and see it come to fruition. But we, like King, must be willing to be a radical, unafraid of the changes that will most definitely come.