By Teddy Fikre
During the most trying times, when hope is a glimmer that seems too distant to be tangible, it is our children that serve as our bridge to hope. We — Ethiopian-Americans — immigrated to the United States for this very purpose. As the generation who benefited from the toil of our parents, we often don’t fully appreciate the tremendous sacrifices our parents have made so that we could attain the American dream. Not only should we never forget the sacrifices of our parents, we should extend every effort ourselves so that the our future generations can ascend higher. This will be our legacy as a people; this will be our legacy as Ethiopian-Americans.
Individually, we have some of the brightest minds; we have attended some of the finest universities and amassed a wealth of intellectual capital. However, if we do not come together and work for the common good, we will continue to be lone men and women on an island. Solidarity — one that transcends gender, ethnicity and religion — should be the clarion call for all Ethiopians. There are untold hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians in the United States; yet, our inability to coalesce and work together for the common good from coast to coast in America has prevented us from building a coalition for the betterment of all. Whether it is socially, economically, or politically, our inability to unite is a detriment for us; more importantly, it can be a detriment for our children and generations yet to be born.
I was reminded of this paradigm when Ethiopians for Obama deployed to Lideta Mariam and Kidus Gabriel Church to register Ethiopian-Americans to vote. Once the registration drive was completed at Lideta Mariam, I headed over to the Kidus Gabriel Church for the second registration drive. After the registration table was set up inside the church, I noticed how many Ethiopian children were there. One particular girl, 4 year-old, Hanna, came over and asked me what I was doing. Here was a child–barely old enough to count to 10 — asking me what a registration was. After I explained what we were doing, she said “I want to help” and proceeded to bring over more of her friends. Another amazing girl, 7 year old Merekat and 5 year old Leah, came over to the table. They asked me what they could do to help, and I told them I needed people to come over and register to vote.
In one of the most amazing scenes I have ever witnessed, each one of these girls started pulling random men and women by the hands and bringing them to the table to register as the church was letting out!! It was touching; there they were — Hanna, Merekat, and Leah, the Joshua generation — leading men and women by the hand to register. All told, these amazing girls helped register five Ethiopian-Americans and sign up 10 volunteers. The lessons we could learn from these children is beyond words; sometimes age does not add wisdom but pessimism. If we observe our children, we will see in their spirits the true soul of God. A spirit that does not ask about ethnicity, religion, or any other intangible barrier that serves to separate one from another instead of working for the common good. We are indeed our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and we should be reaching out to every single man and woman to encourage them to take their rightful place among the ranks of citizenship by registering to vote. Engagement in the American political process is not just our privilege — it is our right. The time is now and the moment is ours to make a difference is this our United States of America. Barack Obama isn’t just asking us to believe in his ability to change Washington; he’s asking us to believe in our own ability to do so. The time really is now and the moment really is ours — ahun kalohne, meche naw emihonew?
Let us all follow our Joshua Generation, heed this call to action and respond with a resounding “Yechalal .
Please join Ethiopians for Obama: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ethiopiansforobama/
4 thoughts on “Ethiopia’s Joshua Generation”
Hello founders of Joshua Generation, it is really a good start trying to bring our solidarity especially designed for ethio Americans here in the US. I also want to give my appraisal for the efforts that was done to campaign the next American president Barrack Obama. I strongly agree with the fact that you quote from Obama that he says “believe in our own ability to do so.” So what is our ability means to our selves, to our family, to our community and to our country? If you really want to interpret this quote it means a lot, especially compare to the various problems that we have back in Ethiopia that comes due to bad governance. I mean are you guys planning to bring everyone in to one umberella and bring our solidarity to tackle the current Ethiopian problem by any potential that we have. We all know that we have many Ethiopians that are professionally works for various companies including government, we also have many Ethiopians that establish their own business and work for them selves and even create job opportunists for others, we also know that we have many Ethiopians that serve the US in various skills. If we all combine our potential interms of money, skill, power and labor that require time, yes we can easily play a significant role along with many Ethiopians in globe in the process of removal of the weyane regime. Lets stand by saying no more dictatorship in our nation. In addition to that we all know that we have a common enemy including poverty, unemployment, famine, lack of democracy and justice, malnutrition and etc that is caused by majorly with the LACK OF GOOD GOVERNANCE THAT IS CONTROLLED BY A FEW INDIVIDUALS UNDER THE TPLF(WEYANE) TENT. So I strongly urge and beg the officials, members of Joshua Generation to make a gap to resolve our divrse problems together. I strongly believe that we can play a big part in removing of the weyane regime, in order to ultimately achieve our goal. As Obama says Yes We Can….together yes we can….lets work together and I am expcting your call soon so that I can bring many of my friends, family, and members of the Ethiopian community to join your group as Hanna, Merekat, and Leah did at the church……NO MORE DICATAOR SHIP….
i have been reading and hearing too many theories and opinions that what could be done about our country to change the live of it’s citizen.fortunatlly,w ethiopian have no shortag of theries and opinions. what we miss is to provide tangiable result on the ground.discourse with insight of the subject is very useful for grouth. what surprise me the most is that many of you tend to have excessive glorification about our forefather works while overlooking their mistakes and misjudgements about change and progress.we can’t find a cure for any disease unless we know it’s cause.we are a product of past,thus we have responsiblity both moral and legal reasons to tell the story about our past truthfully. let us avoid making opinions or theories basd up on it’s effects only. in my judgement,the diseas is not only lying on the govrment ,but also society in general.these joshus genration is just another extention of past do nothing generation unless we can change our approach.
HI MR TEDDY FIKERE
GOD bless you my brother I LIKE YOUR IDEA THAT IS WHAT WE NEED . LET RESPECT EACH OTHER LETUS LESTINE EACH OTHER . WHEN IWAS KID ILEARN FROM MY DAD AND GRAND PARENTS TO RESPECT ANY HUMAN BING NOW WHAT IWANT TO COMMENT PLS TRY YOUR BEST TO TEACH THE GENARATION WE HAVE A COUNTRY WHICH STILL NEEDS OUR HELP .
i don’t get your point , but i like your writting style. you should write more some intersting, like childern story or short stories.This genration is lost genration. I hope your jousha genration will cary your wish some day. keep on hoping and support them.Tell them ethiopia is poor and back ward…the only way we come out ofthis misery through hard work and accepting we are poor.Don’t preach that we have a history of 3000 or 3 million., which is nothing to do with today.History is history. what count is where we are today.