Chick Chat: A Message to My Generation

The greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr

Today I was with a friend of mine who is around my age. I asked her if she was going to the protest tomorrow and she told me that she would think about it if she knew what there was to protest about.

She used all the same excuses I've heard from the majority of young people I meet. I don't really care about politics. It doesn't interest or affect me that much if I'm informed or not. Well I have a message for you fellow Generation Y.

Wake up!

Wake up and take a look around you.

Stop saying it doesn't interest you.
Stop saying it doesn't affect you.

One day, not too far away, you will be very interested when it starts affecting you.

You will be interested the day you finally get to climb the corporate ladder, only to realize you are paying the majority to the government. The day you realize that you have no options about what you are paying for and who you are supporting with that money. You will be interested when you have to ration the things that you've never imagined going without. And no, I'm not talking about health care.

You will be interested when you get married and realize that the holy sacrament you've entered into is another way for the IRS to get a hefty contribution. You will be interested when you start a family some 5, 10, 15 years down the line and realize those precious little loved ones will still be paying your father debts when they have children.

You will be interested if, God forbid, some day you have a child born with a problem and they are denied the help you so desire for them. You will care when someone labels them a second class citizen.

You will be interested the day that you're children go to school and come back believing that our country isn't fundamentally good or founded on Judeo-Christian principles. You will care when they think that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry were evil corrupt men. You will take notice when a bad decision in your child's life can't be resolved because they've never had to take on personal responsibility.

You will care when your parents start to deteriorate and aren't provided with the care, comfort or compassion that they need and deserve.

You will care when you are no longer invincible to sickness, sadness, consequences...

Three things have happened at this point.

You have stopped reading because you are completely apathetic to what I am talking about, in which case there is no hope for you. You have read this and think that I am completely insane, in which case there is hope for you, perhaps just in the future. Or you have read this and think that there might be something to this waking up thing, in which case there is hope... for our country and for you.

Some of the things I have talked about are already happening. Some of them are very close to becoming a reality and others are not that unbelievable if you look at the direction that we are heading as a country. I have to tell you again fellow Generation Y.

Wake Up!

You can't afford to be apathetic.

Maybe if I say it again you will listen.

You're life can't afford for you to be apathetic.

Stop excusing yourself from the conversation that is going on around you because you can't take a moment from the keggers, martinis or club mixes. Stop listening to pop media and believing that they are giving you facts.

Jon Stewart is not news.

Perez Hilton is not news.

Wake up!

You can't afford to be apathetic, but you also can't afford to be ignorant. You can't afford to be ignorant to the truth, especially now. You can't afford to be idealistic or politically correct. You can't afford to think with the the crowd.

George MacDonald once said,
"The two pillars of 'political correctness' are: a) willful ignorance b) a steadfast refusal to face the truth."

Face the truth Gen Y and become informed. We cannot afford to be a politically correct, idealistic generation any more.

Every generation fights the "man". Every generation has waves of idealistic thinking that infiltrate the ranks. Every generation has those that fight for the individual causes and beliefs, "advancement" for supposed "political correctness". While others simply accept the issues they are given and bathe in apathy.

If we were smart, the really advanced generation we would realize that every generation eventually becomes the "man". Willful ignorance and apathy are consent. We will have to live with the consequences of the "advancements" that we are in the midst of making. Inevitably, apathetic generation upon apathetic generation forms a very different America. An America we will not recognize nor control.

We are fighting against our future.

The future of our aging parents. The future of our brothers, sisters our friends.
The future of our children.

We can't afford to fight against ourselves; we must wake up from our idealistic trance and fight for ourselves.