For you see, it was not too long ago that the young Tim, my dear brother, was a registered Republican. He’s 21 right now, and has always been proud that he voted for McCain in the 2008 election. Not only did he support McCain, but he also supported the war in Iraq, and was Yes on Prop 8.

Yes, in the election of 2008, our votes canceled each other out. It was disheartening and since then, I’ve been on the path to try and open his mind (not convert him). No, he doesn’t have to be a liberal; I would just like it if he could question more. Up until last weekend, it didn’t seem like I had made much progress.

But then the Tea Party came along and shook things up. As it seemed more and more dire that Tim would fall deeper in to Republican rhetoric, heroes emerged. Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, Gingrich, the whole Tea Party movement.

I had a talk with Tim last week, and I began asking him how he felt about the Tea Party invading his Republican Party. What he began telling me blew me away. The idiotic nature of the Tea Party was what got him questioning the Tea Party and his own beliefs. Growing up in a household where our father praises Ronald Reagan as the best US president of all time (still does to this day), it’s easy to be indoctrinated in to the Republican stance. However, the close-minded thinking, the support for unqualified representatives, the racist undertones…that all stirred something in him.

He now identifies as an Independent. He regrets voting for McCain/Palin, and for supporting the Iraq War. Oh, and he recognizes that voting Yes on Prop 8 is just foolishness.

Thanks for changing my brother dear Tea Party. You’ve done more than I ever could.

Open mic performance at Common Ground, August. Where community members in Orange County share parts of themselves.

My gripe here is that nonprofits, so set on collecting the numbers, don’t bother looking at real areas where they need to be collecting data.

• How many young staffers are leaving your organization per year?
• How many extra hours are young staff working on top of their jobs?
• What amount are you paying your staffers, and is that the going rate across the field?
• How many hours of training are you giving your staffers, to make sure they’re growing?

And because of this lack of data collection/analysis, many nonprofits are cursed to continue being black holes that suck the community spirit out of young staff.

I’ve talked with a few folks who disagree with me on this. They mention that community work is not easy, and if folks aren’t willing to take the long hours for little pay, well..they’re just not dedicated enough to the community and the work. Look, I’m not here to argue about level of dedication. What I’m getting at here is that I believe there is a recurring problem, at least within the nonprofit organizations I’ve worked in/with, where the dedication of young staff is exploited. Why is it okay for there to be such high turnover in nonprofits, especially among the younger folk? Why is it just accepted?

How can your organization help a community when you can’t even solve your own issues?

I remember talking to an older woman who is a supervisor at a certain nonprofit in Los Angeles. She told me that young folks “don’t know what they want,” and most only stay at an organization for no more than two years. “It’s the fickle matter of you millennials.” She later said, “why should we invest in young staff, if they are going to leave so soon?”

The real question mam, is why should young staff stay if you don’t bother investing in them?