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Dear Old Guy, here's how my generation
feels about the issues
By Marty Archibald
December 12, 2006 | Some old guy came and talked to
our class the other day. How old? I don't know, once
you hit 60 it's all the same anyways. He said he wants
to hear the voice of our generation, those in college.
He acted as if he thought our generation was completely
different from his. He wanted to know how we feel about
today's issues. Why we think the way we do. I asked
myself, is he even going to be able to hear me? If so,
will he remember it? Just in case, I'll write it down.
I voted in the most recent election. That's not normal
for people my age. Most my age don't vote. A lot of
us aren't even registered. I'm only registered because
I needed to renew my driver's license. Putting a check
mark in a little box was easy enough. I only voted because
I only had to walk down the hall. Going further than
down the hall would have been inconvenient. I only inconvenience
myself for the truth. I still don't see what was so
inconvenient about that truth.
I used the new electronic voting. The ones you old
people can't use, but the change was made because you
were leaving chads using the old method. My machine
was broken. It didn't have a random button. It's not
that I didn't know the candidates or the issues. I just
didn't really care. I keep hearing that my vote matters,
but I've never seen or heard any thing that makes me
believe that.
Maybe it's because in the first election my generation
can easily recall, the winner didn't even get the most
votes. Maybe it's because the Electoral College doesn't
make sense to us. In our mind's, the Electoral College
says, we want your opinion on who gets elected and we
may or may not take it. Or maybe because if two people
vote in California and the whole state of Utah votes,
California's two votes mean more than all of Utah's.
Or maybe it's because the first political issue we remember
was about the definition of "is."
That kind of jaded us when it comes to politics.
Whatever the reason, the vast majority of us don't
vote. Maybe with a few more years when we gain that
wisdom you have we will realize the importance of our
vote. Or maybe we'll be reassured that you have been
wasting your time all those years voting.
We like our hip-hop. True, a lot of it is mindless
dreck. But it's our mindless dreck. You just don't get
it and to be honest, a lot of the time we don't get
it either. I'm still trying to figure out what a London
bridge is. But occasionally a lyrical genius comes around,
the 2pacs and the Biggies. They are the Shakespeares
of our day.
We love our video games. It isn't our fault that you
can say, "you have died of dysentery" and our first
thought is Oregon Trail. That was our reward game in
elementary school. After playing educational games such
as Super Munchers the teacher would lets us play Oregon
Trail as a reward. We've been playing video games ever
since.
Sometimes it's easier to just use someone else's opinion.
More so than your generation, we are constantly bombarded
with opinions. TV, older people, we hear them from everywhere.
Those opinions can be helpful in forming our own, but
we can't truly form our own opinions from just other's
opinions alone. But sometimes it's just easier to take
someone else's opinion and call it our own. What we're
left with is an opinion we can't back up.
There isn't much difference between our two generations
when you really get down to it. You had rock and roll
we have hip-hop. You had drive-ins and car hops. We
have Fred Meyer parking lots. You have your bridge games
and barber shops. We have Halo tournaments and Grey's
Anatomy night. We're really the same, except that you
are older.
Your vast life experience has helped in shaping your
opinions. We haven't had that experience to gain opinions
about the things that really matter. Ask us about video
games, music, TV or where the party spots are. That's
what we know. That's what we've experienced. Our opinions
on the things that truly matter will come in time, yours
did.
NW
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