Last week, I attended the YMCA’s Youth Conference on National Affairs. What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like: youth from around the nation gather at the Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina to present and debate proposals on both national and international issues. Given that I am a total policy nerd and I loved participating in my state convention (MOYIG forever), this sounded like heaven when I applied.
But I was a little apprehensive. You see, CONA this year was over the 4th of July week. What would I do away from the family cookout? Would there still be fireworks? Did I really want to miss a once-a-year event to go to this conference? But then again, CONA would be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me. I was a graduated senior (making this the last year of being eligible to go), and I had never been able to go before. So I decided to go--and I’m so glad I did.
CONA was, indeed, heaven. For nearly five straight days we talked about the issues facing our nation and our world with 25 members of the first committee and 644 members in the plenary session of the brightest teens in the nation. Although everyone didn’t always get called on (especially in the later sessions), everyone got a chance to talk about the issues they were passionate about. During our off hours, we talked about serious things and fun things informally. We made new friends in committee, at meals, and at delegation (i.e. state) meetings. We hiked, we held the Missouri Pool Party and the Tennessee Porch Party, we took a day trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. We were at a policy convention, but we were also at a summer camp for teens. We were there to have fun and celebrate.
And celebrate we did on the Fourth of July! We couldn’t do fireworks or a cookout because they weren’t practical up on the Mountain, but we did get barbecue, Cheerwine, and apple crisp. We had a dance. The remixes were awful enough to make a lot of people leave, but that was when the real fun began. Outside the dance, we talked to each other about our lives, our futures, and our proposals. There was no personal bitterness.
That’s how CONA embodies the American spirit celebrated on the Fourth of July. There is no personal bitterness.I counted zero ad hominem attacks in my five days on the Mountain. We may be many, from different states, different ideologies, different backgrounds, but at CONA we all share the pursuit of what’s best for the nation and the world. We are one CONA, under God (it is sponsored by the YMCA), indivisible on a personal level despite our ideological differences, seeking liberty and justice for all through our debate of proposals. Despite the absence of barbecue and fireworks, through our actions and the spirit of CONA, we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And what better way to celebrate the Fourth of July is there than that?
