Stinging sleet fell this Wednesday as we made our way to the subway. The combination of city muck and sleet was like walking on brown sugar, but far less sweet.  While the U.S. government shut down temporarily under the weight of winter, the shadow of a world government was in full swing. The ever-present UN security gates were flanked by a horde of snow shovels, all painted in that idyllic UN blue. SustainUS, as undeterred by the weather as the rest of the UN, made its way inside.

In some sense, we should not have been so enthusiastic. We had made little progress in our goals - our policy statement absent from the forthcoming Chairman's report, the U.S. still lacking a permanent youth delegate, and the U.S. delegation still largely unaware, and wholly unconcerned, with our presence.

 Still, we are optimistic. If you read the other posts, Agents of Change are not upset so much because they think we've done nothing and are going nowhere, but rather because they wish everyone shared our enthusiasm! It will take the UN over 20 years to negotiate an agreement on indigenous people, but it took 40 years just to build the capacity where it could even begin such a negotiation. Not to mention thousands of years just to reach a point where every nation could sit down and discuss things civilly (even if some of them are still killing each other back home). We are making progress.

 Similarly, SustainUS has success to celebrate. A few years ago, SustainUS was just an idea, and American youth had one less way, especially such a direct way, to impact UN affairs. Last week, we expanded our reach to a new UN meeting. We have made contacts with national and international NGO's, youth of other countries, and a contact or two in the U.S. delegation. We have drafted a policy document that will have new life in the next CSocD meeting. We have taught a bright and ambitious group of young people the politics of global change, and maybe even instilled in them a love of public service. Most importantly, we have made it that much easier to come back next year.

 And we will be back.