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Life Arts    H3'ed 2/5/09

How Does a Young American Student Stand Such Times and Live?

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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.

 

We are the generation of “Us vs. Them” and not “Love and We.”

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Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com
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