I saw a video that disturbed me last night. When I woke up this morning, I thought I had dreamed it because I was still naive enough to believe I lived in a country where peaceful assembly is a right and blunt force is a resort only used to protect against the dangerous.
A group of students pitching tents where “it’s not allowed” are not the dangerous I need protection from. I need protection from those who make higher education more unlikely for the intelligent yet underprivileged, from those who render a college degree almost worthless due to a >10% unemployment rate, from those who are satisfied that over 1/3 of the nation’s wealth is held by 1% of the population. I may not always fully agree with the Occupy movement but I am grateful that there are still people in this country courageous enough to stand up and say that something isn’t right here.
So this is the question I pose to you…
Is this how it feels to be at the forefront of a revolution? To feel angry, unsatisfied and unwilling to accept things as they are, to know there’s a solution for this mess and that it is not in the hands of those in power? I think that we are standing at the precipice of a struggle that will test and challenge us in a way we can’t even comprehend or prepare for right now. There’s something brewing that we may not be ready for. But I do believe that change should and will come regardless, and for once, I’m actually excited to see what legacy this generation has to offer the world.
