By Suzana Shurlan, 16, Marshall HS

“History has never been my favorite subject. The things people did a long time ago don’t interest me much. But I realize that we wouldn’t have so many privileges today if those people hadn’t struggled to change things. Looking around to see what we’re doing to make things better, I saw that we don’t care as much today as we should.
One day my history teacher started telling stories about when he was young, about how his generation fought for issues of his time. They’d rally at colleges to address women’s rights. They’d give speeches on equal rights of all races. They’d march in angry protest of the war (whichever war it happened to be). These often got violent—some protestors even lost their lives.
The class had mixed reactions to his comment. Some said there’s no war to protest, and everyone has the same rights now. One girl spoke out saying that teens today would rather do nothing and complain about being bored rather than get involved in anything useful. My teacher told her that she should start getting involved and others will follow her example. She sat back in her chair and said, “Why me? No one’s gonna listen to me.”
Our generation takes a lot for granted. We’ve never had to fight for anything. We were born with the right to speak our minds, the right to vote, to think what we please, and do basically anything except harm others. But what would it be like if we had a government that didn’t think we were smart enough to vote, that would imprison us if we said anything against it, that would give us no opportunity to ride above our social class? That’s the way it was long ago in Europe and that was the reason the first immigrants set out for the New World. They immediately set up a democracy based on the people’s vote. Their ideals were very liberal for their time, though it might not seem so today. For a long time, only the white male property owner could vote. But through the struggles of so many generations, our country has come to allow any citizen of America, regardless of wealth, sex, race or religion to have a voice in the government through their votes.
Our constitutional right to freedom of speech guarantees us the right to complain. There hasn’t been any measure taken by the government that’s had a unanimous vote of approval by the people. That’s because everyone has different opinions. But because people are always saying what they like and dislike, they achieve a certain compromise that works for everyone. That’s the key to democracy. The Founding Fathers set it up that way so that no one group will dominate the others. That’s how we avoid dictatorship.
Yet to really make a difference we have to do more than complain. It’s wrong to say that we teenagers don’t yet have any power. We may not all have the right to vote yet, but we can influence our parents and older siblings to do so. We can also look around to see how things are run and who make the decisions around school. It’s easy to complain about the strict dress code “they” just passed. It never occurs to anyone that we can take part in school council meetings. The reason things get passed without our knowing it is that no one bothers to represent the student body at these meetings. We imagine we’re being bossed around by the district but in reality there are many opportunities for us to voice our opinions—and have people listen.

There are many ways to be heard
Even at city council meetings people are willing to listen to our adolescent ideas: A while ago, Mike Sliff, a teen from Hermosa Beach, attended city council meetings and proposed that the city fund a skating park. They accepted his idea and the project is currently underway. (Look for an article about the skateboard park in an upcoming issue of LA Youth).
If you think there aren’t any strong issues for our generation, you’re wrong. Just because we don’t have a war to protest doesn’t mean the world has stopped. The truth is, most of us don’t read the newspaper to see what’s happening in our community, our government and around the world. If we did, we’d find a lot of things that we’d like to change. There are many organizations we could get involved with. Amnesty International upholds human rights worldwide (Call (415) 291-9233). You can help kids with UNICEF or help the environment through Greenpeace. You can get in touch with many of these through the Internet.
Another way to be involved is simply to educate yourself on what happens in the world by reading newspapers and magazines and discussing them with others. For example, scientists are currently developing cloning technology. Cloning people may be possible in the next 15 years. By making ourselves aware of this now, we can prepare to take a stand on the impact and morality of this issue.
People think that on their own, they can’t make a difference. But taking action on your own is the best way to get others to follow you. It shows people you’re serious about your cause. In your community, you can always recycle, join beach clean-ups (call Heal The Bay at (310) 581-4188) or tree-planting crews (call North East Trees at (323) 221-1778). You can join AIDS Walk, coming up on Sept. 26 (Call (323) 466-9255). You can take a stand on issues like abortion and immigration. At school, you can become a peer counselor or start your own club to address the issues you feel strongly about. You can volunteer with Rock the Vote, helping to educate and register youth, so they can start voting as soon as they turn 18 (Call (310) 656-2464 x103). You can become a student pollworker through the Registrar’s office (Call Vanessa Brown-Lawrence (562) 462-2512).
There are many reasons to start getting involved in the world around us. We shouldn’t ignore the rights that others fought to earn for us. Soon the world will be in our hands and what we do with it will affect our children. If we don’t, we’re just letting others decide and rule over us.”