I'm nearly 18 and am in High School in Washington State. I was feeling frustrated with my fellow youth lately and decided to write about it. I'm trying to get a lot of my friends to read it and I'm thinking about putting it in the school newspaper. Here's what I came up with --
Yesterday I got back from my Spring Break trip to New York City and Washington, D.C. Several days ago, I visited the Arlington National Cemetary and looked at the hundreds of thousands of graves of soldiers that seemed to stretch on for miles. They were all the same, and they were lined up in perfectly straight rows to resemble servicemen standing at attention. The entire scene was quite chilling.
As we continued on through the Cemetary, I visited the grave of President John F. Kennedy. Later, on the side of a grassy hill, I found the grave of his brother, Bobby, or RFK as he was commonly known. RFK would likely have been President of the United States, but he was instead assassinated. His grave was peacefully situatied on the side of a hill with a beautiful view of the capital city. A fountain caught my attention and as I noticed it, I also noticed one of Bobby Kennedy's quotes ethched into the nearby stone wall. It instantly affected me and this is what it said --
"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Later I got an email from one of my heroes, General Wesley Clark, asking me to help him in his mission to round up 100,000 signatures at StopIranWar.com to stop a brewing war. Many people think that what they say means nothing, but I thought about it, and decided that each signature, each voice, each person, is like a "ripple of hope". I was inspired right away to spread the word and get people to say no to war and no to violence. But I can't do it all. You guys have been signing my petitions and coming to my Young Democrats meetings and reading my newspaper aricles for months now. When is this generation going to step up and say THIS IS WHAT WE THINK?? When are were going to have 15 articles in the opinion section of the newspaper instead of just one or two?? When are we going to create that "currnet that can sweep down the mightiest walls of resistence"? ... How about now?
Whether it's StopIranWar.com or BombTheHellOutOfIran.com or whatever your cause is, get behind it for god's sake and share your ideas. I'm so sick and tired of young people who don't give a crap about anything. In 20 years, this world is going to be ours, and all we care about is how much an ipod costs or who was wearing ugly clothes today. We can make this current but it starts with one small ripple. So what are you waiting for?