Chris Hedges, a writer whose work is frequently featured on Truthdig.com, recently wrote “It’s Not Going to Be OK.” His writing formed a dark but accurate representation of the world my young body is engulfed in right now.
I may not have done anything to make the world the way it is, yet I have a responsibility to respond appropriately in these times and must respond even if it means sacrificing an opportunity to move up a rung on the class ladder.
I have the capability to cling to the courage of my convictions and compel others to consider reacting to the concerns confidently rather than cynically.
Applied to today’s world, what does that mean?
Scratch the surface of any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist, right? I happen to harbor jaded idealism that only becomes more jaded as the power of the people wanes. Perhaps, you do too, and so you wonder, what does it mean to have a responsibility to respond appropriately? Respond how?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
I wrote a letter to the editor that was published in my college’s newspaper. It was a call to students to come together and discuss creative, imaginative, and innovative solutions to the economic crisis this country faces. The call focused on how Student Government Association (SGA) at Columbia College Chicago, which I am a part of, is poorly representing the students because they are not responding to the fierce urgency of now.
A part of myself thought maybe some students would read the letter and react so I included the email addresses of the newspaper and the SGA so that students would write in suggestions for ways we could help students struggling; as service industry jobs are lost, college students will be hit hard because service industry jobs are what young students work to pay tuition.
But, I am not supposed to, as an At-Large Senator, write to a newspaper and speak out critically of a body I am a part of. Criticisms I harbor should be spoken in private and should not be uttered as a way of compelling a group or organization to take notice and act.
Not only did nobody publicly discuss my letter, but privately, they said read the letter and they passed it around as if they were in Mrs. Crabtree’s 4th grade class and the letter to the editor was an “I Love You” note from me to somebody I happened to like. This adolescent response in Student Government was met by stillness in the student body; perhaps someone will write something in the newspaper next week as a reaction but that’s about all I can expect in terms of an immediate reaction.
Why should any of this be of interest to you who struggles to make ends meet, you who goes to work, or you who takes your kids to school and picks them up from friends’ houses or takes them to the movies or the mall? Why should people who have no knowledge of my self care?
The college I go to is just a microcosm in America, but it is one where passivity, weakness, unawareness, naiveté, and indifference result in behaviors which build up a society that allows for prejudice, injustice, fear, and violence to triumph.
In fact, when SGA was in the process of doing something that would greatly benefit the students---granting the Cultural Studies department at Columbia $2000 for books to be used for students writing their theses because these books are expensive (about $25 each) especially in these times---the issue was not giving the money but the fact that if a proper checkout system was not established students would steal.
It is with great dismay that I say in these times, when people all around me are losing their jobs on a daily basis, my generation does not confront the harsh reality with dignity and compassion and a love for one another; no, we turn inward and become insipid, fearful, anxious, and spiritless.
My generation---We are the 9/11 Generation, not the Obama Generation.
