Another good day but late night at the Higher Education Ministry Summit here in Birmingham, Alabama. Today we visited the Civil Rights Institute and the 16th Street Baptist Church, the one where a bomb attack in the 1960s killed four teenage girls before Youth Sunday services. Both places testified powerfully to the sacrifices many of our African American sisters and brothers made so that all of us in this country could be better off.

This morning at breakfast, someone brought up our singing on the previous day of the song, "We Shall Overcome." The young man talked about how he felt a bit uncomfortable singing this song, especially considering that we were a group comprised largely of white, upper-middle class Presbyterians. What are we overcoming, anyway? Our propensity to shop at Wal-Mart? That the closest Starbucks is two blocks away from campus? I told him that I had held much the same ambiguity-- there's something that rings a bit false when a group of the world's most privileged people sing about overcoming oppression.

Later on this evening in small group, one campus minister wanted to know why young people today weren't taking to the streets on behalf of social justice. This started a lengthy conversation, in which college students had to defend their activism and volunteerism on campus. What they said, and what I hear time and time again from folks, is that they interface justice issues in different ways than the Baby Boomer generation did. College students tend to focus on direct, short-term actions that achieve fairly tangible results. Although I think even that assumption tends to fall apart when you look at the numbers of young adults seeking jobs in the non-profit sector around long-term campaigns for justice issues.

Yet I think part of the problem with why we aren't generally engaged in some sort of mass social movement (although there are some glimmerings of that in the immigration debate and, in some circles, around LGBT rights) ties directly into my ambiguity about singing "We Shall Overcome." If we seemingly have nothing to overcome, what would honestly motivate large numbers of young women and men to take to the streets? There are no more segregated water fountains, no military draft that threatens our lives and our futures. If we're in college, we live fairly comfortable, sheltered lives. And if people generally struggle to overcome the things that impact their daily lives, is it any wonder that our generation isn't engaged in the struggle?

In some ways, too, I think it would be fairly dishonest of those of us living with such privilege to co-op the struggles of others. What I mean is that I, as a white woman, wouldn't feel genuine jumping in and spearheading a movement for, say, immigrant workers. That is something for the people whose lives are most directly affected to lead-- I could certainly engage in their struggle as a follower and ally, but not as an instigator. It would be different if we were talking about women's suffrage. But then, that struggle was already overcome for me back in 1919 by others.

But at the same time, if change is going to happen in the world then those of us who have "nothing to overcome" need to step into places where we can be allies and followers. Perhaps, despite the frustration campus ministers expressed about our lack of activism, seeds for that are planted when we do the things young adults today like to do-- go on mission trips, serve at the local soup kitchen, build a Habitat for Humanity house. As we start to encounter those around us and hopefully build genuine community with our neighbors, their problems begin to be our problems. We begin to see ways that we can partner for change.

And perhaps, in the end, we do take to the streets to support the efforts of our sisters and brothers who really do have something to overcome.

"If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world-- therefore the world hates you." --John 15:19

Kelsey