America: Generation Y

The United States of America

Generation Y

            I was born in the fall of 1993. Like so many of my peers, I will go on to grow up in a very different manner than my parent’s generation. Technology had just made its biggest leap since the Gutenberg Press. Data for the first time is transferred in a matter of milliseconds, not minutes, hours, or years. My childhood education in retrospect was a giant experiment. My classes taught us not only typing but Excel and PowerPoint and all these new programs available to us. We have grown up with so many advantages never been offered before. There was, however, one huge part missing. Our generation has no spirit, no direction. We are a Giant without a compass. We are soldiers without a war.

            Previous generations have had hardships, hopes, events, and enemies that fused them together and gave them an identity, a soul. The greatest generation, the one that grew up during the depression and fought the last world war and conquered both will be remembered for their courage and tenacity. They fought and sacrificed, not just for themselves but for those helpless and innocent in Europe and Asia that were on the brink of devastation. This just cause defined them and is on display in our history books

            The Baby boomers and Generation X had defining moments as well. The oppressive Soviet Bloc separated the world into East and West; the threat of Nuclear War loomed over everybody’s head. We remember them as the generation that was taught to duck under their desks for protection in case of an atomic attack. They went on to achieve one of America’s crowning achievements, the Apollo Project, Manifested in those unforgettable words spoken by a simple Ohio boy, “That’s one small step for man, that’s one giant leap for mankind.” All the while, the Civil Rights movement was fighting injustice in a cultural war that didn't stop in 1865 but haunted our nation until higher minds eventually prevailed and created equality for all.

            What about us? We have no Nazi Germany, nor grand space program, nor no glaring societal injustice, nor a Soviet Union to worry about. What do we have? What defines us as a generation?

            The truth is, I am too young to remember all of the horrors of 9/11. All I remember was my elementary school teacher being called out of the classroom in the middle of a lesson. The teachers I assume were deliberating on what they should tell us had happened. I remember going home that day and eating a bowl of cereal watching the news. I did not understand. The thought of thousands of people dying was just too great to comprehend. Too me, it was an incomprehensible number. It did not register that they were kid’s mothers and fathers, Parent’s sons and daughters.

            In the years that followed, we went to war. The longest war our country has ever known, Afghanistan, has claimed thousands of brave, young, men and women. Yet, due to the lack of media coverage, it is out of our minds. In the last two elections the war has been practically a non-issue.

            The question is what will define us in the history books. Will we be viewed as forward? Or will we be the generation that knew about the challenges that face us, and were unable to rise up to meet it. For we have no FDR to strengthen our resolve, we have no JFK to challenge our scientific prowess. We have no Ronald Reagan to tear down the symbolic Berlin Wall.         

            The question is, will our talents go wasted to a directionless society, or will our new found abilities brought to us by vast technological improvements drive us to answer the trials that will, for better or for worse, define us in history to our grandchildren.

            Will there be a Roosevelt, a Kennedy, a Reagan? This is impossible to guess. We do however need somebody to get us to strive for something better.

Copyright 2013

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