Wednesday, November 5, 2008
We Are The Jaded Generation
everything's been so strange lately. I have so much on my mind I can't decide where to begin.
(Two people have told me I take life too seriously and I take my beliefs and morals too seriously, but I really do get offended cause I don't think it's wrong to do so. If we live without a purpose to hold to and to stand by, aren't we just wasting the one life we get?)
Elections are over, and now everyone's just disrespecting everyone. At my school, everyone's dissing McCain (because, you know, us 17-year-olds have any idea what McCain has done for us and our country, being a POW and all). At other schools, people have become racist, but THEY'RE minorities too!
Why can't we just learn to respect? Obama and McCain could respect each other. And yet, my generation is out there throwing insults left and right and other things they don't know. When did we lose this inert respect for our superiors, for older people, for PEOPLE?
We are so jaded now--everything is a right for us. Freedom of speech/religion, voting--we all consider these rights. This is something I've noticed a long time ago--none of us feel like we should be thankful because we've lived with the notion that we HAVE to have the right to be able to do what we want, not that it's a luxury or something we have to earn.
Yeah, this has probably been said every generation, but I'm disappointed in us. We pale in comparison in what we've done for our nation. My fear goes far deeper than...this election. I don't trust us to make decisions based on beliefs and morals--I fear that in four years, when kids my age can vote, they'll vote cause a) they should cause all the teachers in high school told them to, b) peer pressure or c) cause one of the candidates is REALLY REALLY COOL. I am so scared and terrified.
I'm praying and hoping that it's only because high school didn't mature some people, and that in four years, college will have. We will have actual intellects, not just kids who are smart and know how to study. We will have kids who can think for themselves. Kids we can trust for our future elections. Kids who will stand for something, no matter the repercussions.
Man, all kids should have to go through an existential crisis in college. That'd make us mature.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I understand what you're saying. Many people take these freedoms for granted. They've had them since birth and get used to them; they're no longer freedoms, but rights. But is it bad that we have a right to freedom? I don't think so, but perhaps I haven't experienced many people abusing and insulting their rights and freedoms. I also wonder how we would earn our rights if they're already given to us?
I hope that people not only mature, but inform themselves and open their minds.
Hannah, you are one in a million. You make others think and reevaluate. I believe more people should read your blog and become aware of themselves. I really do.
No, but I think we should be thankful. Freedom was never a right--it is a luxury. Our forefathers earned it; we should be grateful. I don't think we should take it as a right--that's a bad attitude in my opinion, because then we this attitude of "I don't have to work for it, I should just get it." I don't believe in "something we just get"--you get what you work for, you know? If we don't have to earn our freedom, let's at least deserve it by being the respectful, patriotic people our forefather wanted.
I see what you're saying, and I definitely agree that we should be respectful and thankful. Although I see freedom as a right, I don't hold the "I don't have to work for it, I should just get it" attitude. Our forefathers fought so that future generations would have guaranteed freedoms. If we treat our freedoms like they're rights, maybe we'll want to protect them more.
But at the same time, we are born with these freedoms. For example, children of illegal immigrants born in America are automatic citizens - they didn't have to earn that. Maybe that's the problem: we're born with these freedoms, so we don't feel the need to have to earn them - and then forget to be respectful.
Post a Comment