Who am I? Who I am isn’t so much important as what I represent. What I represent is the future to come. I am a member of the generation that will take this country, and this world, into tomorrow – The Millennials, Generation Y, etc. (Whatever you want to call me and my cohort). The point is myself, and all young people reading these words, we are the future. And that future is in peril.
Since the dawn of human civilization, each succeeding generation has always contributed to the overall progress of humanity for the betterment of future generations so that they don’t have to endure the hardships that their parents did. Leave the world a little better than when you found it – that’s always been the golden rule. But as we enter the twenty-first century, it seems like that golden rule is being broken and, for the first time in human history, we’re facing the possibility that the next future generations will be less fortunate than their parents.
There’s always been an unspoken intergenerational contract in which the present generations acknowledge the need to leave something for generations yet to come. In other words, take what you need and ONLY what you need to survive, the rest belongs to the future. But in the last three decades, this intergenerational contract has not been honored by certain members of our parents’ generation and we are now starting to see the results. If we do not correct this issue soon, then we will all pay for it.
I am well aware that there are both good and bad people in every group so to judge an entire group based on the actions of only a few of its members is unfair. Most people from our parents’ generation are hard-working honest folks who just wanted to provide for their families. So to count them in with those who cared only about their jobs and their paychecks really would be short-sighted (and I hold myself to a higher standard than that).
However, our elders have elected leaders who are now leading us to ruin. The world around us is going to hell in a hand basket, yet our elders seem all too content to sit by and let everything fall apart. This is where their generation, as a collective demographic, can’t be so easily excused.
Because things have been mismanaged for so long, young people are the ones paying the price for their parents’ mistakes. And that’s why I’m here. I want to make a difference and hopefully help the world avoid the coming intergenerational war. And make no mistake, that was IS coming unless we act now! Remember, evil triumphs when good people stand by and do nothing!
There is much that us young people can learn from our baby boomer parents and I want to learn from them. But I can’t do it all myself. I need you, the reader (and hopefully fellow young person) to stand up and take action, before we really do reach the point of no return.
Empower The Young 