As a woman of "a certain age", I have basically given up.
Given up on my generation actually doing anything to change the direction our country is heading.
Can you say Roman Empire?
Heck, can you say modern day Greece?!
We inherited a fiscal mess from the previous generation and overall I have just seen it get worse year after year, not better.
And don't even get me started on all the social policies.....!
Between living on credit, ignoring a political and economic system that desperately needed overhauling and making bad personal choices when we have/had money, so that combined with the fiscal situation, we don't have enough to last through the end of our lives, so as not to burden the next generation with massive debt, our society is handing the next generation an even worse society. Their future looks quite dismal.
We are standing at a great crossroads in our Country and while the American people as a whole sink at an ever hastening pace into a great abyss, the leaders in our nation stand on public stages and promise the moon AND the stars for our votes, all the while pointing fingers at each other and spend their time and energy to see who can fling the most horseshit at the other.
If political were a pissing match(and I'm not saying it isn't!lol), the National Leaders of the USA would be the Masters of the Pissing Match Universe.
I told my eldest son, who is about to graduate college into this abysmal economy and will need to find a job that can support him soon, that I had great hope that
his generation would be the one to "right this ship". Instead of supporting National Leaders who seek to gain and/or hold Power over our Nation, by being Leaders who separate us as a people, which is basically what the Republican and Democrat Leaders do, I have a view of this Generation actually seeing these people for what they are and what they do to our citizenry in order to keep us enslaved to ways of doing things that ONLY benefit these Political Leaders.
Benefit these Political Leaders at the expense of our Society as a whole.
I have a glimmer of hope that "our kids" can actually see past all the bullshit our Leaders talk and work together for the actual good of our society.
And then my son dashed that hope. He actually laughed at me for holding this hope!
He told me that, as he looked around at the peer group surrounding him on his college campus, that he sees a generation, HIS generation, that is just like my generation had been at their age. These newly minted citizens, the kids coming of age in 2012-2013 into an Adult world have their heads up their own asses.....or more specifically, have their heads up in Jersey Shore and other MTV type "non-reality" shows, up in their electronics, up in their social life/dating life/scoring life, in their goal to see who can skip more class lectures and still pass the course because they can't seem to find the time to study/attend class because they are always out at the bars or hungover.
Back when I was young we had a slogan, "Question Authority".
It was a good saying and a commendable way to live your life.
But we need to get these kids to go beyond the questioning and demanding answers.
They need to actively participate in helping solve the problems and not sit back as a group, like MY generation did, and let others craft the pathway to the future.
Questioning is just the first step.
To be part of the solution, they need to get actively involved.....not just protesting and whining because they didn't get some government bailout or entitlement, or they didn't understand that when they signed that student loan promissory note that it was going to change the course of their Adult financial life.
That's not "involved".
That just complaining about what life is handing you.
They need to be part of the solution. That begins by joining in the dialogue, joining organizations DOING something and being taken seriously by the Adult world.
And put the damned smartphones down and stop texting long enough to use their brains to work together to solve this mess for the good of their generation and the generation that follows them.
If you have a young person in your life, you need to get them to watch this short film at the end of this post.
And talk to them about being active in their government and participating in their future!
And tell them, that if they aren't interested enough to be involved in how their world runs, that someone else(with their own agenda)will be more than happy to run their world and probably make their lives one sorry place to be stuck in.
Make sure they register to vote and then nag them about voting ONLY AFTER they have become aware of the issues and how everyone who runs for office will vote on the issues.
If your young person is clueless on how the issues they are concerned about line up with the political schools of thought out there, have them go take this quiz
HERE.
Hey, it's an online quiz......young people seriously LOVE to take these. I see it all the time on Facebook with them!
If nothing else it might get them thinking about something other than the stuff they usually think about that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really matter much.
And for goodness sakes, make sure they
VOTE FOR CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR THE LEGISLATIVE POSITIONS!
If this generation wants ANYTHING to really change/get better in this country they need to understand that NOTHING will change really until they realize that voting ONLY every 4th year for a President is NOT acceptable!
The people you can elect in your government who will have the MOST impact on your day to day life are those in Congress--your Senators and House Representatives.
Not voting for your legislative representatives is a cop-out.
So please, if you have a young person in your life, talk to them about our government. I know they have government or civics classes in high school, but do you really think they paid attention to those lectures?
Seriously, do you?! lol
Talk real issues at the dinner table with your kids.....not just what hot new band they want to see, or what celebrity was caught on camera being naughty or who wore what to which awards ceremony.
And it's never too early to get them involved in learning what's going on in the adult world around them....not who's on Dancing With The Stars but what real issues are facing our world and mostly certainly will impact them as Adults on down the line.
Sluggy
