The Sickness Within

[Merrittorious]

A poll I heard about recently asked whether people believed that the United States' best days, i.e. the time of being the most powerful nation in the world, doing good things, and basically making the American standard of living the best in the world, were behind us. Is it all downhill from here, basically. The response came back that 59% of people believed that yes, we are headed in a downward spiral, that we will soon be a second rate country( like Spain). Now, to me at least, this was a shocking number, to say the least. Even if it was skewed a little high, thats over half the population that thinks the US has no future. That astounds me, since this was supposed to be the land of opportunity and eternal hope. If we think that the country is headed into a ditch, how can we be expected to express these virtues to those on the outside? Oftentimes, when the subject of politics or the economy or anything pertaining to the situation and state of the nation comes up in conversations with my chums and I, there are multiple people who state "The country's headed for the toilet" or some such similar remark. I hate hearing this, I won't lie, because first of all, we, the 17-24 year-olds, we are, as cliched as it is to say it, the future for this country, or the near future, at least. We can't afford to be nay saying the country, complaining that theres nothing we can do, because when that happens, it spreads like a virus, and everyone feels paralyzed. Its nice that there are higher voter turnouts lately, because its nice to see a democracy working, instead of the AARP basically choosing the candidate, since what else to old people have to do? But at the same time, its depressing to see that a crisis of sorts is whats needed, like having one of the worst presidents in history, an unwinnable war, energy crises, environmental crises, and all other kinds of crises to drive the people to the polls. Worse yet, a lot of us younger folk probably won't vote come November, anyway, for some or no reason. I mean, if you want to just admit that the countrys about to tank it, that voting doesn't matter, then fuck it, don't vote. But I have to say, if you are going to join a social networking site with a name like Ambition, than there must be something you want, a desire for things to be better or whatever, so what better way to express that, try to get done what you want to get done, than by using that basic right the Constitution guarantees you, get out there and vote. I hate to be getting my P.Diddy on and telling you to vote or I'll kill you, but I mean, get involved. sure, Obama, and before him Howard Dean, or Ron Paul, they had a lot of support from the younger crowd, I mean, there's a lot of us, and apparantly we are all firebrands, and I mean, wouldn't you like to change things eventually? Make a mark. Do something to help rock the foundations of society, or whatever, it seems like thats what we need. Sure, almost 2/3rds of us think the country sucks, but if its gonna go to hell anyway, why not give it a go, try and fix things. I mean, we may be in the shitter, but we are still the richest country out there. So I don't know, don't listen if you don't want to, but theres more to life than just what is in front of us, more than just friends and neighbors, and going to the park. We gotta put some work in on the world at large, shape that to how we want it, or at least give it a little nudge. Who says we can't do anything? This country was built on little people, we keep this bitch running, so wahy let a bunch of guys we could probably beat the crap out of anyway run things, tell us how its gonna be, when we could just give them the finger, and hit the switch. Go ahead, do something.

PS. Check out this link. Interesting, i think. http://nightweed.com/printableusavotefacts.html

[820ambition]

yet another interesting topic - perhaps the most crucial dilemma this country has ever faced. words of reason, words of progress. keep the inspiration alive merritt, just because nobody heard a tree fall in the woods doesn't mean it didn't. well done once again.

I specifically enjoyed:

"..So I don't know, don't listen if you don't want to, but theres more to life than just what is in front of us, more than just friends and neighbors, and going to the park. We gotta put some work in on the world at large, shape that to how we want it, or at least give it a little nudge. Who says we can't do anything? This country was built on little people, we keep this bitch running.."