The host nation of China has the ignominious distinction of possessing one of the world’s worst human rights records. From an illegal military occupation of Tibet, to repressive policies in Muslim East Turkestan, to stringent family planning that has included forced abortions, and the jailing of democracy and free speech activists, there is little to say positively about how China treats those who live inside their borders. Taking a look from Beijing towards the African continent and we see China’s endless thirst for fossil fuels manifesting itself by propping up the Sudanese government and providing Khartoum with the money they need to perpetrate genocide in Darfur. These are not issues that the global community has taken lightly and it is because of their gravity that the political side of the 2008 Games will be a focal point over the next few weeks … As you watch the Olympics over the next few weeks, remember that the events on TV are not happening in a vacuum.

The election is literally heating up to the mid-90s here in Portland, where my pal, Megan, and I have been traipsing door-to-door evangelizing on behalf of Barack Obama and reminding voters to drop off their ballots before Tuesday’s deadline.

It was surreal to think, as we were sweating profusely in Beaverton, a P-town suburb, yesterday afternoon that it had been almost six months since we were freezing for the same cause in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I can distinctly remember my Portland-based friends telling me over turkey last Thanksgiving that they didn’t think their votes were going to matter, and here they are poised with the opportunity to end this saga. Yet another example of how arbitrarily electoral power has been distributed in Campaign ‘08.

Barack and Michelle speak this afternoon at the downtown waterfront, and the city is atwitter. Almost everyone we met yesterday knew about the rally already, and it sounds like thousands of people are going to brave the temperatures to be there for the Senator.

I stayed in this morning to watch Mike Huckabee tear it up on Meet The Press (he really makes Republicans seem cuddly), and now it’s time to meet my fellow Obamamaniacs for what will hopefully be the beginning of a decisive blow to HRC’s candidacy this week.

As the guy in front of me tried fruitlessly to jam his ballot into a contraption that resembled a Special Edition Electoral Pac Man (we checked for hanging chads!), I marveled at the fact that even though I can TiVo election debates and question the merits of Campbell Brown’s moderating skills with pals on Blackberry messenger while monitoring viewer responses on Facebook, I still had to attend a Shuffle Board convention just to cast my vote on paper.

This disconnect is one push-pull of many at the end of an era. And it is the end of something in America, because as voter turnout specifics trickle out this primary season, it’s clear that we Spoiled Millennials are stepping up to the plate to take our place as the new leaders of society. (Sorry to all those middle-managers whose big plans for promotions and beige houses and golden retrievers are being thwarted by those little text-messaging twirps and their grandiose ideas.)

I’ve started this blog because there are questions no one has sufficiently answered. Why are the future resources available to my peers and I being squandered in Iraq? How will technology change the right to privacy in my lifetime? Will I drown when the Polar Ice caps melt? Is someone ever going to teach impoverished children math and science or keep funneling them into the Army? Will traditional media outlets learn to generate thoughtful news or continue to recycle the same tired, sensational sound bites that fuel public disillusionment? Will China own America in 2020? How will we reinstate the credibility of American ideals and display true global leadership? Are my friends going to keep calling me at midnight in the midst of quarter-life crises trying to find meaning and motivation in a mess of uncertainty?

In many instances where there have been opportunities to evolve, I’ve seen people/industries/processes clutch gravity with their collective fingernails.

But we are a generation that refuses to accept conventional thinking and submit to antiquated systems. We Google the things we don’t know. We got 5s on all our AP tests and went to Stanford. We were the captains of militant soccer teams since conception. We were not impressed with the suits at our first jobs and got written up in performance reviews for being instigators. We quit said jobs because they weren’t innovative enough. Our activism is electronic. Many of us are Hope-mongers because we’re sick of uninspired leadership.

And now we’re a force to be reckoned with.

It’s a fallacy that we are disengaged. I’ve met so many amazing people who are organizing to improve our collective American experience, and their efforts deserve to be showcased as a springboard for thoughtful discourse and a glimmer of inspiration. In this blog I hope to share such stories and respond to some of these troubling questions with solution-oriented answers.