Thanks to everyone for supporting the work of the “If I Had A Trillion Dollars” youth film festival and for voting for our video entry, “Dear Congress, Invest in Us” in the Looking@Democracy contest. WE WON THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD! Looking@Democracy judge Byron Hurt had this to say about our entry: “With so many stereotypes of Millennials as the ‘me generation,’ it’s refreshing to see young people involved and engaged in improving our democracy at the local level. I look forward to the […]

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By Kasiem Aboti Walters As a young man raised by a single deaf mother and surrounded by deaf family and friends, I see education as crucial in my life. So I was excited by my recent opportunity to meet with the U.S. Department of Education at their executive headquarters in Washington DC, thanks to the “If I Had a Trillion Dollars” national youth film festival. What I experienced there gave me more confidence that youth can work with officials to […]

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If you turn onto Ellsworth Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you might come across a big house standing between two tall green trees. This is the Pittsburgh Friends Meeting House where the American Friends Service Committee’s Racial Justice Through Human Rights youth program meets twice each month on Sunday afternoons to learn about the importance of human rights and equality. The group is run by Scilla Wahrhaftig, the program director at the Friends Meeting House. The students come from different social […]

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Did you get sick of hearing about the fiscal cliff a couple months back?  So did I.  But here’s the deal, talk over spending cuts still aren’t over.  And though the partial agreement that Congress came up with was less than satisfactory for those of us who want to see the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share, something neat did happen.  A tiny door was left open. All that’s left to discuss are cuts to spending.  We can’t talk […]

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I just built a better budget, a budget that reflect my spending and revenue priorities, based on real budgets proposed by Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan and the House Republicans, President Barack Obama and the Democrats, the non-partisan Office of Management and Budget, or the House Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). Creating a better budget is a lot easier than I thought, which makes it hard to understand why Congress is unable to get the job done on schedule. Check out the “Build […]

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Last weekend, I saw ‘The House I Live In,’ a documentary by Eugene Jarecki on the War on Drugs.  If you see any movie this year, see this one. The obvious reason IHTD followers should check out this film is that we’ve spent over $1,000,000,000,000 (that’s a trillion dollars) fighting this endless, ineffective, and racist ‘War on Drugs’ since 1971.  Last year, the federal government alone spent over $25 billion enforcing the War on Drugs, and requested an increase in funds […]

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Our new playlist is up, for the 3rd annual IHTD film festival!  Watch the videos as they are submitted, and get inspired to create your own 3 minute video for the ‘If I Had a Trillion Dollars’ Youth Film Festival.

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A reflection on lessons learned from the Chicago Teachers Union strike earlier this month, from our very own IHTD coordinator - Mary Zerkel!  Read and share! http://truth-out.org/speakout/item/11743-we-all-got-schooled-when-chicagos-teachers-struck

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