It's the end of the world as we know it..............

Ahh election season. The pundits lick their lips while candidates bring an extra pair of pants. And though the rhetoric has yet to change, one group of people will probably never hear it. You see, I am a unique figure in my generation. My opinions and views are not merely what is convenient but what I am convicted to believe. I am not phased by the disenfranchising talk of people older than me that have had time to get bitter and cynical. Unfortunately, that puts me into the minority.

For years, my generation has had to battle through stereotype after stereotype. We are called the laziest, most privileged, apathetic, lethargic, least inspired, least likely to achieve, least likely to succeed, least likely to accomplish something greater than ourselves, and that is just the appropriate ones. We are consistently told that our opinions don't matter because we don't understand the gravity of the situation we find ourselves. They are telling a generation of youth that has had to deal with earlier rates of drug use, sexual activity, depression, suicide, and loss that they don't understand the gravity of life. Huh.

It doesn't stop there. We are reminded of our shortcomings. The generation of people that protested in the streets against Vietnam, burned bras on college campuses, lived through the Free Love and Hippie movements are now calling what mistakes and adventures we have unforgivable. The generation that fought to have a voice on college campuses, to give blacks and gays the status of human in America now don't want to extend those privileges to us. It is not enough to simply guide us into having productive, solid lives. They also have to kill our spirit as well.

That is why this election day, things can end up the same. My generation continues to avoid the system that doesn't want any part of us, meanwhile the generation above us puts in people that promise to cut taxes and increase the scope of wars and spending. Or.....................

We can change things. We can hijack the system. The best way to shut people up is to prove them wrong. You see, all it takes is one election in which we are the largest group participating. We dictate the order of things. We decide who is in, and who is out. We don't put up with the same old things that have gotten America to the place it is in today. We have an opportunity to shock the world and change everything that has pushed us in a corner. The question is not whether or not we will step up to the plate. The question, rather, is when.