Late last evening and this morning Americans were hit with the news that Senator Ted Kennedy had passed on. It was a hard fought battle with Cancer and we all saw his journey as he continued to work hard despite his illness. During the election cycle he was a familiar face and his illness was made even more heart-wrenching when he suffered a seizure during the Inaugural Luncheon for President Obama. Nonetheless he showed that he would work until the very end. His loss is major blow to many of us as he was a strong fighter in the Democratic party and worked hard on Health care which is a major issue that this country is battling as we speak. The youngest of all of the Kennedy Children he was born into legacy. He was a great Icon and he will be regarded as such. Let us hope that the media stays kind to this man’s legacy and his family in this time. We know how good they are at bringing up old stuff. Click here
to read Pres. Obama’s statement regarding Ted Kennedy’s death.
Ted Kennedy’s passing along with the deaths of several other notable Icons this year has caused myself and many others to ponder…. who are or who will be OUR generation’s Icons? When I say our generation, I’m mainly thinking of the 20-30 somethings that are just now getting our futures underway. Sure Pres. Obama will be an Icon, but is he ours? Perhaps we can claim him only because for the first time in a while the young people really got out there on the ground and put in a lot of work to see that he was elected. Not to mention his internet campaign was clearly a reach to us and our involvement was monumental. But the reality of it is that we’re looking more at the children of previous Icons. The children of Dr. King? Well….not quite. The Shabazz family? Who are the major up and coming actors and actresses of our generation? Heath Ledger could have been on his way, but we know how that story ended. Am I just really out of touch, is it too early in the morning, or have we become so fast paced that today’s star quickly becomes yesterday’s gossip? I know that we are the generation of here today gone tomorrow, but who is stepping up in the world to be major pioneers? Who is OUR Steven Speilberg?, Andy Worhol, Michael Jackson, etc.? (Is it Tyler Perry!?)
Even in sports it seems there is an invisible gun picking the top athletes off. (I realized that these guys have done it to themselves, but even in the smallest of issues we are quick to snatch their “great” cards) Rape accusation here, dog fighting there, shot self in the leg with an illegal weapon over there, side-eyed your mother in the stands two weeks ago. We’ve become so critical I wonder if we’re holding each other back from being great. Or is a true Icon above the criticism and able to step over it? Our entertainers and proving that they cannot stand the test of time. The ones that have seem to have to re-invent the wheel each time they produce something new. The YouTube generation has A.D.D.
I believe this is me issuing a challenge to myself and others. I saw it tweeted and it is often said, “what will they say about you when you die?” and that’s actually a pretty good question. Sure we could all say, “well they will say that I was nice, friendly, goofy, etc.” but will they be able to talk about the mark that you left on the world? Honestly, at this point I can’t say that they could. Sure I have goals and great ones at that, but even I allow myself to fall victim to distraction. I know plenty of people that are “on their way” and I include myself in that category, but when we look at the Icons that are quite quickly being laid to rest their legacy began often times well before the point that I am in my life.
Let me say that it’s not that I believe that we don’t have iconic people in our generation, I’m just 
having a hard time penning their names. Please help me. As much as I liked all four of Kanye’s studio albums I’m adverse to believing he’s the best we have to offer. I also understand that it will probably be a good 10-15 years before someone from our generation takes a seat in the oval office, but in that case they are lurking around out there, doing something, fueling the flames of their own greatness. What can we do to propel them? Do we ask that question enough? “What can we do?” We are a generation good for “causes” and getting behind “something” but are we too caught up in the idea and not the action? Even I have gotten caught up in wanting to save the world which is a distraction from being able to solve at least ONE issue. Perhaps we’re too all over the place and we need to come together to tackle things one at a time. People believe the civil rights issues are dead, I just believe they have changed. Where is our generation’s leadership on that? We’re in wars that many of us believe are unnecessary, where is our generation’s leadership on that? Social Security, Health care, Energy….we will be the generation that has to fix these things. Where is our generation’s leadership on that?
I can do it, you can do it, we can do it. So what’s stopping us?
Article by Jennifer Garrett
JG* is a small-town turned big-city blogger who once wrote the random yet ever-creative look into the life of a girl entering the Quarterlife. These days as she prepares for her MBA program at The Ohio State University she's turned into quite the "Susie The Riveter." Working with teens by day, cooking delicious meals at night. Check out her blog showcasing her delicious recipes at http://jgrunsthekitchen.wordpress.com. Follower her on Twitter @JGRunsTheCity
Jennifer has written 50 article(s) for us.
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Good thought provoking article. Besides our current President and Oprah Winfrey, I really don't know of any current icons for African-Americans. No one sticks out in my mind as a young leader who can perhaps grow into icon status. Does anyone have any ideas/names??
@SA, Someone mentioned Mark Z of Facebook. But he’s kind of an ass so he’s not too much inspiring, which is part, I believe, of what defines an Icon.
Someone also said Bakari Sellers.
I understand that at this time it’s hard to say we have “icons” since longevity is one thing we use to measure someone’s iconic status. But it’s pretty hard to list any up and coming standouts.
A large problem that we (20-30 year olds) had was the lack of current examples as children. We have heard about the progressiveness of Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson but in our lifetime we have never seen them in positive light. We also were not able to have a pop culture star such as Muhammad Ali speak out against things that were wrong and not been scared of what might happen. Leading also takes on a role of sacrifice, which I think our parents, to a certain extent have killed in our spirits. Meaning our families always talk about how much they had to do away with in order for us to be successful. This forces us to put the blinders on occasionally and focus on self to make sure we do not let them down. Although selfishness is the worse trait a leader can have. The last problem I see is unless we find something to be lucrative we usually shy away from it. This could be monetarily or image wise but it has to come with some sort of compensation.
This is a good thought provoking article.
The biggest problem that I recognize is that we live in a global era and we can’t unify on a few of our basic national issues i.e. health care for everyone. I think our generation might get a bit upset about some of the problems but we aren’t completely & utterly pi$$ed off. There’s nothing REALLY uniting us, despite the billions of problems.