As I blogged on Friday, Young People For, the program that empowers young progressive leaders to promote social change in their communities, and the Republican National Committee do not share much in common. But over the Martin Luther King Day three-day weekend, these two groups shared the same hotel, where YP4 held their national summit and the RNC held their winter meeting. The diversity among YP4 was truly stunning, as young people from different parts of the world, different ethnicities, different gender identities, different sexual orientation, different life experiences gathered in one place to connect around social change and community building. To be fair, the members of the RNC were also diverse: their skin color ranged from golfer’s tan to translucent; they celebrated diversity by wearing black ball gowns of different sizes and shapes; and their fur coats came from a variety of animals, making the affair a truly inclusive and representative one.But this weekend’s irony is not limited to the RNC YP4 coincidence. The greater irony is the RNC MLK coincidence. How appropriate it is for Republicans, many of whom, including Dick Cheney, fought hard against making Martin Luther King Day a holiday, to take advantage of this three holiday to hold their winter meeting. As they planned committee activities and events for an administration that has eroded–and is still eroding– so many of the gains of the civil rights movement, for which King fought and died, did these RNCers think they were honoring Martin Luther King’s memory?

I’m writing from the Young People For summit in Washington D.C. Living Liberally is one of the co-organizers and Laughing Liberally will be performing tomorrow. Last year when I performed at the summit,  I was thrilled to meet the “YP4 Fellows,” the young leaders and activists, who receive training and and support from YP4. I was struck by these energetic, open-minded, progressive, diverse, dynamic, and inspiring college students.

But this year, I have to admit, when I arrived at the hotel where the YP4 fellows are staying I was a little disappointed by what I saw. The people sitting in the lobby were much older, straighter, whiter, boring-er, and stuffier than I had remembered them being last year.   In the sea of white, suit-wearing people,whose age ranged from 50-80, my earings were literally the most ethnic things there. Is this what has become of the young progressive movement, I wondered in fear. Then I learned that the hotel was hosting the Republican National Committee’s Winter Meeting. And it all made sense. Phew!

Like what you see at YP4 more than at the RNC meeting? Then sponsor a YP4 fellow.