(no subject)
Kaitlyn McKay
Mrs. Laflam
Honors English 9
January 7, 2004
The Role of Young People in Society
When you were a teenager, did you know what you were going to do with your life? Did you really ever truly think about what you wanted to be? Most teenagers haven’t. Using that fact as a stepping stone, a band named CKY used “Infiltrate. Destroy. Rebuild.” as a slogan to get kids working and to help them realize that they have a meaning in life, which is to do whatever you want, and rebuild the world the way you want it to be (Miller, 2002). The band, which are still young people themselves, took that slogan to heart, saying “We can’t wait for someone to do something for us; we need to think on our own in order to survive later in life. In order for that to work for us, we need to make the changes necessary so that we can live the best possible life we can” (Chad Ginsburg, 2001). Young people are usually considered brain dead people who don’t care about the world, but we’re really the most important generation. We are the future. Whether the topic be politics, music, style, or just the basic way of living, we all need to make changes in this ever-changing world that we live in. That’s why the role of young people in society is to present and make changes where they live and in the world around us.
Young people in the world attempt to make changes in politics everyday. Protesting, interning, and other ways of showing that you care about politics help give you credibility to the politicians and help the laws and the current events change. However, most politicians and other authority figures don’t think much of them, so their actions rarely get anywhere. In Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, Peter and Valentine have trouble getting their point across being children, so they become Locke and Demosthenes on the Internet so that they get people to listen to their ideas. With this help, they get the attention that they wanted from the audience they wanted, and get their point across and help the military stop the breaking of the Warsaw pact. As much as they helped the government and politics, there are also people who are against the military, and can actively make their opinion heard. From the protests in San Francisco, to the war rallies in places like Texas, protesters, which are most young people, try to make the world a different place. Most young people love politics, whether they are for or against the current state of their country, some just love to talk about them, and that’s what makes us important. However, some people, who are usually more outstanding in adult’s eyes, don’t really care about politics. This has prompted popular music groups to write songs about current issues in the world, like this ballad, “You wanna end terror? The solution is for you! Call up. Join the proud. The few. Pull the trigger with heart and soul, because war is peace, now we know! Fight fire! With fire! … any dumbf*ck can murder. Kill Kill Kill!” shows the hatred toward any military action (Sane, 2003). That song, written and preformed by teenagers, is played to get young people thinking about what they do and how they think about the situations at hand. Another form of politics has nothing to do with the state of the world, rather the state of the family. In some families, there is an order that things go in, and usually the oldest man gets the most responsibility for the family, no matter the ideas or personality of the person. In A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, when Mama gives the insurance money to Walter to help pay for his Liquor shop and to put some away for Benetha’s schooling, he goes and loses it all, “It’s gone? All of it?” (Hansberry, ??). The oldest man is trusted and in turn loses the money set for the entire family.
Mrs. Laflam
Honors English 9
January 7, 2004
The Role of Young People in Society
When you were a teenager, did you know what you were going to do with your life? Did you really ever truly think about what you wanted to be? Most teenagers haven’t. Using that fact as a stepping stone, a band named CKY used “Infiltrate. Destroy. Rebuild.” as a slogan to get kids working and to help them realize that they have a meaning in life, which is to do whatever you want, and rebuild the world the way you want it to be (Miller, 2002). The band, which are still young people themselves, took that slogan to heart, saying “We can’t wait for someone to do something for us; we need to think on our own in order to survive later in life. In order for that to work for us, we need to make the changes necessary so that we can live the best possible life we can” (Chad Ginsburg, 2001). Young people are usually considered brain dead people who don’t care about the world, but we’re really the most important generation. We are the future. Whether the topic be politics, music, style, or just the basic way of living, we all need to make changes in this ever-changing world that we live in. That’s why the role of young people in society is to present and make changes where they live and in the world around us.
Young people in the world attempt to make changes in politics everyday. Protesting, interning, and other ways of showing that you care about politics help give you credibility to the politicians and help the laws and the current events change. However, most politicians and other authority figures don’t think much of them, so their actions rarely get anywhere. In Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, Peter and Valentine have trouble getting their point across being children, so they become Locke and Demosthenes on the Internet so that they get people to listen to their ideas. With this help, they get the attention that they wanted from the audience they wanted, and get their point across and help the military stop the breaking of the Warsaw pact. As much as they helped the government and politics, there are also people who are against the military, and can actively make their opinion heard. From the protests in San Francisco, to the war rallies in places like Texas, protesters, which are most young people, try to make the world a different place. Most young people love politics, whether they are for or against the current state of their country, some just love to talk about them, and that’s what makes us important. However, some people, who are usually more outstanding in adult’s eyes, don’t really care about politics. This has prompted popular music groups to write songs about current issues in the world, like this ballad, “You wanna end terror? The solution is for you! Call up. Join the proud. The few. Pull the trigger with heart and soul, because war is peace, now we know! Fight fire! With fire! … any dumbf*ck can murder. Kill Kill Kill!” shows the hatred toward any military action (Sane, 2003). That song, written and preformed by teenagers, is played to get young people thinking about what they do and how they think about the situations at hand. Another form of politics has nothing to do with the state of the world, rather the state of the family. In some families, there is an order that things go in, and usually the oldest man gets the most responsibility for the family, no matter the ideas or personality of the person. In A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, when Mama gives the insurance money to Walter to help pay for his Liquor shop and to put some away for Benetha’s schooling, he goes and loses it all, “It’s gone? All of it?” (Hansberry, ??). The oldest man is trusted and in turn loses the money set for the entire family.