I am so sick of hearing all of these stories about teens who suffer from depression, suicide attempts, drug abuse, and all kinds of angst—but not for the same reason most people are. I'm sick of it because it's one of the most atrocious things our society faces, yet we seem to mock it with our media and movies, and to dismiss it when faced with it in reality. We have these parents who are coughed out of crappy schools, who can barely drive a car let alone raise a child, who have to work two jobs a piece on top of it all—and where does this leave our children?
It leaves them in shelters, foster care, or worse—hurt, abused, or even dead, because either nobody gave a damn or because nobody had any time. And as I was reminded tonight, all it takes is one soul—one single person—to offer an ear, to say, "Are you ok?", to give advice, to just listen for a minute out of your "busy" day—and yeah, we're all so busy, right? We're so busy our heads are on backwards, but do we do anything meaningful like give a lonely kid a hug? Empathize? Save a life?
So screw your abstinence-only education and your crappy schools and your "pro-life" pasted on fronts and your so-called family values and constant partisan bickering. We don't need Democrats. We don't need Republicans. We need another choice, a good choice, because I'm sick of having to choose between the same grade of rotten meat when it’s shopping time every four years.
These kids need to be put first, and who to change that but kids? Fresh out of college kids, fresh out of school—young adults are idealistic enough to kick the ills of this nation in the ass. They can band together and forget party lines and make politics interesting and cool and meaningful and get all of the other young kids involved. Send all the old crotchety white men running this nation backwards somewhere for retirement and bring in some fresh faces.
Why do we have archaic rituals and incomprehensible acts and bills that nobody understands? We all need to jump right in—forget the pricey suits, the fake smiles, the schmoozing. Just sit around in our jeans and say, "Ok, let's fix this today, and tomorrow, we'll fix that." Am I being simplistic? Absolutely. But simple things work. Just look at what happened after these old guys complicated the hell out of everything.
I'm just so frustrated with what our world does to kids. It's not enough to just sit around and talk about it, either. People need to take a no tolerance stance on child abuse and neglect, of all kinds, and everyone should be involved. I've heard so many stories lately—as if I couldn't forget the ones I've already heard—that it literally makes me sick. There are kids dying all over the world from hunger when their parents are trying to feed them, and while America might have an obesity problem, our kids are killing themselves and dying from abuse and neglect from parents who can feed them perfectly well! It just sucks and I'm sick of it and I'm not ever going to turn away from somebody needing help. I hope you won't either.
