A message to the leaders and future leaders of the country:
Hi, I'm Andrew, a college student having a great time at school. I grew up in the suburbs, had a relatively peaceful upbringing, am a strong believer in public education, a Christian, and consider myself an idealist. I believe in the American Dream and the power of America to do good.
Lately however, I've become just a wee bit cynical. Perhaps even more than that. I'm finding it hard to believe in this country, or for that matter, anything more than my own selfish gain. Why?
I'll tell you on the flip.
When I heard the army was going to pot because no one was joining, I tried to get all my friend to enlist. It's awfully hard to do so however, when no one, not even the President, is calling on you to do. Of course, even if he did, no one would believe him now. Especially if he mentioned weapons of mass destruction.
That of course didn't dissuade me, idealist that I am. So I ended up joining ROTC, but lo and behold, they rejected me because my eyesight wasn't up to par. Besides, you guys can't be that serious if you're willing to discharge valuable Arabic interpreters just because they're gay. So no harm done right?
So then I began to look for other alternatives. I considered the Department of Homeland Security, but it seems to me that all they do is throw huge parties in Hawaii. I'm not sure if they do any real work.
I started looking at intelligence and counter-terrorism community as a whole. But y'all can't seem to get your act together on this. I'm not sure whether you're job is counter-terrorism or counter-immigration. And well, since my mom's an immigrant, I don't think I'd really do all that good of a job. Besides, the whole torture and indefinite detainment thing really isn't my thing. I mean, I don't even drink much less piss on Korans.
State Department? Well, would be fun. If you paid attention to them. And if they weren't staffed by walruses.
And then I thought that I could at least do the whole Freedom Corp thing. You know? The thing y'all touted way back when? I mean, you have a pretty web site, but in all the time I've been in high school and college, I've never heard anyone up high say this was important. So, oh well.
But you know what? I'm just making excuses really. I could really serve my country if I wanted to, just as the chickenhawks could really enlist if they wanted to. I just need a little encouragement, a little encouragement that no one is giving me. So my message for the leaders and future leaders of this country is simply this: inspire me.
Don't spend time slamming the patriotism of fellow Americans when you could be calling on us to serve, to fight the good fight. Don't go out and demonize the left as the enemy when in reality, the terrorists are the bigger threat. Don't go attacking my religious beliefs and saying I don't have any just because I hold different political views. And most importantly, don't let the idealism of this nation die through benign neglect and constant dishonesty.
I still believe there is a chance for people like me to once again serve America with passion, to believe in America. I believe that we can get past a war that's destroyed our innocence, a corrupt government that's destroyed our faith, and a cabal of nutcases that's willing to say anything and politicize everything just to stay in power. But it starts by someone asking us to believe, by telling us to "ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country," by campaigning not on a platform of how Plan X increases my pocketbook by Y dollars, but about what makes American great and what I personally can do to continue making it great. And most of all, it starts by our leaders leading by example.
And frankly, y'all got a long ways to go.
