June 1st, 2020
I got into a heated discussion with my dad yesterday about what’s happening right now (don’t worry, we’re fine!). While we were making scattered points, I blurted out something I’ve been thinking about a lot this week.
“Why didn’t you fix this?”
As I see people from generations older than mine criticizing the state of life right now, I can’t help but wonder: why did you not do the right thing, when you had the chance, together? I imagine many of you, when you had children, told them, and yourself, that you would make a better world for us live in.
Why did you break that promise?
Why are we left to unlearn all of this bullshit, and why have you made us the teachers? Why are we trying to make you understand that people are not groups, but they are individuals; that each single human is a priceless life that can never be replaced? Why did you put that burden on us?
This isn’t the first protest, or riot. This isn’t even the hundredth. Many of you lived through the civil rights movement, so I ask:
Why didn’t you fix it?
Why did you leave this problem, along with so many others, for your children to deal with?
You can’t answer it, and we’re not expecting you to. All we’re expecting from the people who failed us is to get the hell out of our way.
My son will grow up in a world better than mine. And it won’t be because of the people who came before, who let things get to be this way.
No, it’ll be because of us.
So, I won’t ask you again why you didn’t fix this. Putting that burden on you is only hypocritical.
I will only ask that you allow us to try.
The Den 