Jonah Wheeler knows his story resonates with others. How at the age of 17 he’s lived in so many apartments and houses that it’s hard to keep count. How his mom has worked tirelessly to provide for her two children and at times it just wasn’t enough. How he’s seen firsthand how the systems in place can fail people. How racism still exists.
“I know my story matters,” Wheeler said. “I can articulate my story and it will be impactful for others.”
So Wheeler is using his voice for change. He knows that change won’t happen overnight, but it’s not going to prevent him from doing everything he can to achieve it.
“I’ve put my voice out there,” he said. “People don’t understand the struggles.”
That change, Wheeler believes, lies at the feet of those who make policies and create laws, the ones that have made him feel like his family has slipped through the cracks. At 17, Wheeler can’t vote yet, but that doesn’t matter – if he can change people’s minds, he will be doing his part to make sure others don’t endure the hardships he’s lived.
“We are at the head of these crises and on the brink of failure,” Wheeler said. “It’s at a point where it can be nothing but politics. I choose to fight against what is happening and have my voice heard. We’re fighting to survive.”
The ConVal High School senior lives in Peterborough – on the west side – and has been in the same place with his mom Rebecca and younger sister Alohi Lorden for the last eight years. But ask Wheeler where he lived before that and the picture of what he’s been through starts to become a little clearer.
There have been a couple other spots in West Peterborough the family has rented, along with New Ipswich, others places closer to downtown Peterborough, as well as Maine and a year in Seattle with his grandmother when their housing in the area fell through.
“My housing situation my entire life has been mostly unstable,” Wheeler said.
And he knows that significant change will not happen without reworking the systems in place through policy creation and legislative action. These days, political activism is what consumes him.
Wheeler’s political journey dates back to when he was six when he went to the polls with his mom to vote in the presidential election – for Barack Obama in 2008.
“I didn’t know anything about anything then,” Wheeler said of the moment. But it left a mark on him that was hard to ignore.
It was seven years later when Wheeler really got that itch to learn more about the policies and systems in place. He did some phone bank work for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 campaign and the interest began to turn more into a passion, a way of life.
By the summer of 2018, Wheeler said his mom wanted him to have a more structured balance to his hobby. So she set up a meeting with Heather Stockwell.
“She knew I had an interest in politics and she wanted me to channel that energy,” Wheeler said. “And I wanted to channel that energy too.”
Stockwell is the Statewide Campaigns Organizer for Rights & Democracy and that first meeting was more exploratory, Wheeler said, just to get an idea of what her work was like. What he quickly realized is that all the issues that Rights & Democracy is working to address – health care, housing, minimum wage and more – are all things his family has battled his entire life.
“I’ve sort of lived those experiences. We’ve been without health care, we’ve been without housing,” Wheeler said.
But what still gets him is why people have to go through that.
“In a region with such great wealth it’s unacceptable someone living here is going through that situation,” he said. “From day one I knew it didn’t have to exist. I didn’t understand why things had to be the way they were. Systems don’t need to be failing at a level they are right now.”
That meeting was all Wheeler needed. It lit a spark that has grown into a passionate blaze over the last two-plus years.
Wheeler volunteers with the Monadnock chapter of Rights & Democracy and while the 2020 presidential election is in the rearview mirror, the fight for change is ongoing. With municipal elections and town meetings on the horizon, there are more opportunities to help put the right people and policies in place to create a path to a better tomorrow.
“I think activism work is super important,” Wheeler said. “But at the end of the day, the biggest problem is the lack of political courage.”
While Wheeler has yet to graduate high school, he’s quite certain his next phase in life will include getting into politics. He’s not sure if that would mean running for state representative or something more local, but regardless of the direction it will be about making meaningful change.
“A career in politics or a career in organizing is where I see myself,” he said.
Even though he couldn’t vote – and still can’t – that didn’t mean Wheeler didn’t want to be informed. He did some door-to-door canvassing for Sanders in 2020 because “he’s the candidate that mostly aligned with what I was going for,” he said.
By all accounts, Wheeler has had positive interactions with the local police departments and feels he’s been painted as anti-police for his stance on police reform and the future of community policing. Wheeler was outspoken over the summer, standing up to use his voice to deal with the issues that so many with his same skin color endure on a daily basis.
He said the Peterborough Police are what other police forces around the country should look like. He’s not looking for radical change, just an increase in transparency and engagement.
But while he hasn’t felt being a Black teenager has made him a target of local police, there have been instances of racism. At the age of 12, the police were called on him because a neighbor accused him of trying to sell drugs to her son. He’s had a number of racial slurs tossed his way and threats on social media.
“It’s just sort of how it goes as a Black person,” Wheeler said.
He said it’s the subtle instances of racism that gets to him over time, but he’s always tried to use it as an opportunity to educate and engage others.
“At the core of every human being is compassion and empathy and if we can just chop through to that,” Wheeler said. “It’s something that’s learned and not part of human nature and it can be unlearned.”
Wheeler has been inspired by the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“He’s probably the main driver for my principles through his teachings,” Wheeler said.
He was asked to speak as part of the video celebration for Hancock MLK Day remembrance and did more research into King’s message. He watched a number of his speeches, but one stood out. It was from King’s address at the Hungry Club Forum in Atlanta where he addressed three major evils: poverty, racism and war. To Wheeler the message was clear.
“So working class people, everyday people, aren’t shafted by the system,” he said.
While the message was impactful, it’s hard for Wheeler to see that not much has changed.
“There’s a deep sadness that it’s still the same way,” he said. Yet in the same breath, Wheeler is hopeful for change.
“The timber for such a movement is there now,” he said. “The timber for that movement exists. It exists here. It exists in the state. It exists in the nation.”
It just takes more people clamoring for it to happen.
“It won’t solve everything,” Wheeler said. “But I urge people to open up their imaginations and think outside the box. It’s changeable and it’s not just a pipe dream. It’s possible.”
Living in such close proximity to MacDowell Dam, Wheeler walks there just about every day. There are secret spots he’s found and hidden gems to revisit.
“It’s a whole other world at the dam,” he said.
A world that’s welcoming and filled with wonder. The kind of world he wants to see around him every day, everywhere he goes.