“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent” – Thomas Jefferson
It is kind of a dull grey day here which is very much the way I am feeling right now with a tinge of anger. I try not to write from the perspective of anger but in light of the Tillerson departure and the national students protest on March 14 I really need to get this out. I will, however, keep it short.
A series of recent events (all within a week) leave me feeling like we are really losing our way. My generation, the baby-boomers, as well as a good part of the Millenials have allowed their “good conscience to remain silent” by ignoring our history. We have become the equivalent of examples of colonization in a technical world. We now live in a world where information abounds but truth remains hidden. And, as the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are showing us, the outrage is decimating our youth.
It is no Vietnam but just as destructive to young minds of those commonly referred to as “Generation Z“. Those are the victims of tragedies like Sandy Hook in Connecticut, the Parkland, Florida victims, the Pathway Home victims, the murder of 80 youth at a summer camp in Norway and the list could go on. These kids have every right to be angry. We, “the people of good conscience”, have dropped the ball seriously through our indifference and the bubbles of awareness we have created for ourselves.
It’s through their anger that I reflect on my own anger today. These kids are becoming the voice of reason while us “adults” are clinging to the branding exercises that hooked us on life styles rather than life choices. We have chosen complacency rather than admit to the realities we have left these kids.
We are those people in positions of privilege that “just want to get to retirement” rather than adapt to change. We are those people who refuse to challenge the core of our beliefs on which we have built our retirement opportunities. When our elected officials walk back from the commitments they waved like flags in photo ops surrounded by survivors of tragedies like Florida we should all be angry. Maintaining silence just adds us to the complicity of the violent actions of a few and the hypocrisy of our elected officials. I am furious over just how deeply this complacency has taken us.
When people remain silent while our elected officials use these tragedies as “photo ops” I start to lose my own sense of purpose. It is this type of complacency hat has contributed to my life’s purpose as an activist. It’s never ending and I fight a system in denial everyday due to people forgetting where we started. History didn’t start with Generation Z but ignoring our history has certainly led up to it.
If you are a person who supports politicians who are more attached to a brand than the pursuit of democracy and due process then you should be taking a long walk on a very short pier. If you haven’t learn from history by now that silence leads to death camps then there is no hope for the new generation. Do not let the NRA or an American President who is best at backing away from commitment be an “acceptable norm”.
However if you are a person who believe politicians should be held to a higher standard then get out there and be angry. On March 14 make every young person you know aware that you will stand with them for a better future and join them in their march. Don’t just talk about building a better world, be a part of that better world.
RANT FINISHED but nobody can say it better than the Liberal Redneck Trae Crowder
A Poster Child's Perspective 