Election sparks Editor’s revolution plea

February 18, 2009
Filed under Opinions

Emma Mills
Managing Editor

As a senior, I think I am slowly beginning to realize how big the world really is, and absolutely little I know about it.

As teenagers, we like to think that we’re becoming adults. Adult decisions are made every day, whether it’s the choice to smoke pot or have sex, or deal (or not deal) with the individual amount of responsibility that is put on us to carry, and before we know it, we are a student body full of Atlas’s. And while we are forced to make adult choices every day of our lives, we are no where near adulthood in the intellectual sense.

The majority of us have never traveled the county, been outside of the continental U.S. for more than vacation purposes, or taken the time to actually connect with the relatively small community around us, much less the world as it is outside the television screen. We all live in our own world, for the most part, one that consists of family, school, friends, jobs, entertainment, and all of the issues that coincide with that web of core subjects in our lives.

So if those are our chore subjects, what about the electives? What about the rest of the world that exists outside of our expected daily routine?

I suppose what brought this entire thing up is nothing other than the 2008-2009 historical presidential election, where countless students, on both sides of the political field, either gave (at least slightly) educated views via what they had observed through personal research, their parent’s own views, or media coverage, or, the more common of the two, students who mindlessly advocated their candidate of choice without any real knowledge of what the issues are or how they would truly effect our country.

However, one positive thing rang true throughout the entire election: Never once has our generation been so riled up in the world today, and no matter the outcome of the election, for that we should be truly grateful.

In case the student body hasn’t noticed, apathy spreads through this school like an infectious disease, inhabiting even the most defiant of victims through it’s vicious circle of fruitless efforts and disconnect, preying on our already young minds. This election seems to have found a possible cure when it lit a fire of passion that had yet to have been seen in our student body. No matter how educated or not students were on the issue, at least some part of them cared enough to voice their opinion. Our almost tangible nonchalant attitude that we seem to exude on a daily basis can be seen by the naked eye, and we seemingly could care less about sports we play in, clubs we participate in, or the education, no matter how bland we deem it to be, that we need to learn.

Now, as much as we need to respect Barack Obama’s ability to rile a nation, we should also not be naive enough to believe that promises of “hope”, “change”, and “country first” will actually come to fruition this presidential tem and breathe new life into our shallow nation within the next four years. To do that is setting ourselves, and our future, up to fail. We can’t just care for a few short months, check a box on a piece of paper, and sit back when the process is over and say “Well, I’ve done my part!” and expect these promises – which in reality are nothing more than words — to come riding on the back of one man (or woman, as they case may have been) in Washington.

We don’t need a president, we need a revolution. And the revolution has to come from within our own society, our own communities, and our own minds. We’ve been conditioned to accept things as they are and not to question. We owe it to ourselves and our future to ask why, and not let ourselves fall back into the every day routine of apathy and disconnect. We have to desire beyond a four month time span the changes that in our heart of hearts we know our county so desperately needs. We have to dare to hope, dare to move, dare to demand more than what we’ve settled for.

And though it certainly begins there, change doesn’t come from sheer passion alone (though it definitely helps). I hate to break it to you guys, but it’s going to take a bit of elbow grease on our part, a little force and education to fuel the flame. That requires us to, God forbid, break away from the comfortable nest we’ve created for ourselves, take off our sun-shades, and take in the world with a new set of eyes. We have to step beyond our security blanket of “chore subjects” and venture into new territory to learn first-hand about the true world around us, the one that exists behind the concrete walls that serve as our second home five days of the week. We have to strive for more than just self-preservation and contentment in order to spark the revolution that our generation needs in order to truly become the nation that we wish we could be.