"This election will be the most important election of our lifetime."
Something we all hear, all the damn time. It's frustrating, too. We have to choose between two evils: The Donald and the Establishment (...Oops, I mean Hillary.)
Two candidates that make my teeth cringe, my stomach swell and my heart jump. Never before have we had two of the most despicable candidates in such a prominent election. But, you know that. You the evils that both candidates bring, both so similar in so many ways and different in so few. So, why do we do this to ourselves? Why are we in another despicable election that equates to choosing the lesser of two evils?
The real problem is that we, young folk, tried to change this election, this country, this SOCIETY.
WE TRIED! We did all the things that we could do, right?
Found a candidate that is genuinely good?
Check.
Study his platforms and ideas and find out if he aligns with our idea or not?
Check.
Attend event after event; evangelize his candidacy; donate money to the campaign and ACTUALLY LIKE THE GUY?!
Check, check, check and CHECK!
So, why is Bernie Sanders seem to be a sin to the old folk? Why are we being told, "No" for something that we, the Millennials and beyond, want? Why are we letting those older than we decide our fate?
Because we are the most oppressed generation in this country's history.
That's right. I said it.
We are the single most oppressed generation. No, it's not because of our attachments to our phones, our love for social media or vain complexions we express through selfies. No, it's because the old folk, they want us to believe we are the worst generation in history, but we aren't. We are the most connected, the most empathetic, the most loving, most accepting, most in-touch generation. We aren't the worst, not by a long shot.
We are told that our dreams are too damn big, that we don't understand the world around us, that our "minds and personalities are so far up our asses' that we can't see straight" (direct quote from a 60-something-year-old man who I was debating politics with). We are told to give up. We are told to not vote. We are told we are stupid, ignorant people who cannot understand anything outside our phones. But that's our weapons, our phones. Our way out into the world. I can pick up the phone and talk to someone in Belgium, for god sakes! How is that out of touch?! I can ask them how their economy is going, how life is there, anything I want. But I am out of touch.
I research thing after thing, subject after subject before I make an opinion on something because I can. I can Google something in three seconds, and get thousands of different answers. But I am out of touch.
The day we fight back...well, already happened.
You see, I see myself as an extrovert, one that will jump at anything and anyone to do whatever I need to do to better myself, my life, my family and my community. But, how, I do ask, can someone as loud, outspoken and daring as I may be (or may THINK I may be) say the things that even I know I cannot say without getting pitchforked out of town on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Try to picture that ugly scene.
Again, I ask you to see this picture for itself, for I was on Facebook, looking at posts that my family had produced and stumbled across one of my not-so-close friend’s post that was a shared video. The video was a parody of Dukes of Hazard, disrespectfully named The PC (Political Correct) Dukes of Hazard. Now, while I find this immediately distasteful, I can be totally honest and say that there were parts that were so incredibly dumb that I laughed. But, ironically, the dumb parts were not like the parts of the original movie where you laughed because you just could not help it because these characters were the most ignorant people you have ever seen, but this new level of dumb was very disturbing to me: It was funny because it was real. The video fought real stereotypes. It made valid points. Yet, some see this Political Correctness as an act of overreaching, that we, as society, should not mandate so much because "EVERYONE IS A LITTLE RACIST/HOMOPHOBIC/SEXIST" (the list goes on, and on, and on...), yet we are told that our accepting nature is the far-left footprint on us that is stained from our "young, ignorant nature" (that 60-something-year-old man really has a way with words, doesn't he?)
Thus, in a blaze of fury and lustful anger towards these people that put progressivism on the back table (it is called “PROGRESSive” for a reason!), I decided that the voice that I wished to say, the real words I wish I could unveil to the world with a simple stroke of the keyboard and a little force-touch (because it is a real thing) to my MacBook, to Facebook, would be better suited to be seen by the eyes of those like me. Those who cannot speak out for the lashing of their family(s), those who cannot lash out of anger for the disgusting nature of our country and society because of those who would physically harm us, for those that cannot simply speak, I say to you, through my voice, eyes and heart, We, today, start a new chapter in history:
The day we fought back.
But we already have been told, "No"...
This election isn't about Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump. It is not about the economy, the middle-class, the top one percent. It is NOT about building a wall, racism, classism, bigotry.
This election is about us, my friends. It's about us young folk; the young folk that is being told time and time again that our opinions do not matter.
This election pisses me off. But we are not the type of people to quiet things down after a week of fighting, or a year, for that matter. (PS, have you noticed that the media has already moved on from gun control, Orlando, the LGBTQ community? Interesting, no?)
No, my friends, we need to take up in arms, take up in truth, to fight against this system, to fight against this election and to fight for ourselves.
This election is not about them.
This election is about OUR revolution.
So, what the hell are you going to do about it?
