每日阅读2021.11.21

A new study from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University shows that today's youth vote in larger numbers than previous generations, and a 2008 study from the Center for American Progress adds that increasing numbers of young voters and activists support traditionally liberal causes. But there's no easy way to see what those figures mean in real life. During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama assembled a racially and ideologically diverse coalition with his message of hope and change; as the reality of life under a new administration settles in, some of those supporters might become disillusioned. As the nation moves further into the Obama presidency, will politically engaged young people continue to support the president and his agenda, or will they gradually drift away?

    The writers of Generation O (short for Obama), a new Newsweek blog that seeks to chronicle the lives of a group of young Obama supporters, want to answer that question. For the next three months, Michelle Kremer and 11 other Obama supporters, ages 19 to 34, will blog about life across mainstream America, with one twist: by tying all of their ideas and experiences to the new president and his administration, the bloggers will try to start a conversation about what it means to be young and politically active in America today. Malena Amusa, a 24-year-old writer and dancer from St. Louis sees the project as a way to preserve history as it happens. Amusa, who is traveling to India this spring to finish a book, then to Senegal to teach English, has ongoing conversations with her friends about how the Obama presidency has changed their daily lives and hopes to put some of those ideas, along with her global perspective, into her posts. She's excited because, as she puts it, "I don't have to wait [until] 15 years from  now" to make sense of the world.

    Henry Flores, a political-science professor at St. Mary's University, credits this younger generation's political strength to their embrace of technology. "[The Internet] exposes them to more thinking," he says, "and groups that are like-minded in different parts of the country start to come together." That's exactly what the Generation O bloggers are hoping to do. The result could be a group of young people that, like their boomer (二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人) parents, grows up with a strong sense of purpose and sheds the image of apathy (冷漠) they've inherited from Generation X (60 年代后期和70 年代出生的美国人). It's no small challenge for a blog run by a group of ordinary—if ambitious—young people, but the members of Generation O are up to the task.

• 单词

1. vote -v 投票
2. liberal -adj 开明的
3. assemble -v 集合
4. ideologically -adv 思想上；意识形态上
5. coalition -n 联想；联合体
6. diverse -adj 多种多样的
7. causes -n 原因；目标；事业
8. figures -n 数字
9. administration -n 管理
10. disillusioned -adj 大失所望的
11. settle in -adv 安顿下来；习惯；适应
12. engage -v 从事；与…建立密切关系
13. chronicle -n 编年史； -v 把,,,载入编年史
14. ongoing -adj 不间断的；持续存在的
15. global perspective – 全球视角
16. make sense of – 理解
17. shed the image of – 摆脱…的形象
18. inherit -v 继承；接替；继任