It would be ludicrous to think that every man, woman, and child has complete freedom today in our democracy. We are plagued by crime, ignorance, and political injustice every day and a lot of us are unaware about our surroundings. I am writing this essay on a computer that needed en-ergy burned by fossil fuels to be made. I eat processed food which creates massive amounts of waste for our Earth to take care of. Many of us believe our way of life is easier than it was years ago.
In many cases it is, however we fail to see the consequences brought forth by our need to make life easier. To much freedom has brought about sedentary lifestyles where machines do the thinking and the work for us. I saw a television commercial where people paid money to breathe clean air and those were short a dime remained breathless. We live in a so called “free” country, but paying to grab a quick breath of air is not my idea of freedom. Those who were less fortunate would have to live confined to their own homes just to survive. And those who were homeless would not survive at all in a world that has non-breathable air.
People are sponges. We soak up information and are brainwashed into making life easier. The easier life gets, the more destruction we give to the Earth. Our lakes and forests are dying.
Acid rain has made these ecosystems unable to support life. Rainforests are being cut down for cattle ranching and farmland. As we cut the forest down we could be losing valuable resources that have not yet been found. Despite all of this corruption, we continue to write to our e-mail pals, we dine at fast food restaurants, and we drive our fast cars. All seems well for now, but well be very, very, sorry. We have brilliant technology that can search for life near distant suns.
We can send satellites to Mars and send humans to space while millions are starving on our own planet! The amount of money wasted on space exploration is sickening. Theres no question that it is interesting to know whats in the sky every time we look up, however we must get our priorities straight. We are losing touch with our own world and reaching out to others. If there is life beyond our boundaries, let them be.
If nature intended to let us know about others in the universe, we would know. As I step out on to a new plateau, I am scared rather than excited. Becoming an adult should be filled with security, happiness, and excitement, but nowadays it is filled with uncertainty. The jobs we prepare for in college may be taken over by computers as soon as we graduate, leaving us with no hope for raising families of our own, and no hope for our future that was supposed to be secure.
The funny thing about our society is that we see corruption take place before our eyes, but we let it happen. We are extremely materialistic and my generation has been termed the “Gimme” generation because of this attitude. As the famous English poet Wordsworth once said, “Getting and Spending we lay waste our powers”. We are consumed by money and forwarding ourselves, while traditional values like love, honor, respect, and trust are thrown into the waste paper bas-ket. Families are broken apart because of ideas set by television, children fall into a circle of drugs at an early age, and young women are pregnant with no future at 16 years old. The only question Im left asking is , “Where do we go from here?” My soul belief is that many of the problems the world faces today is because of the human desire to change.
Change is natural as generations grow old and new ones are born. Not all of our changes are bad either. Some people are capable of creating and doing amazing things. We must be careful not to exaggerate our ability to change. We have to survive; not be destroyed.
We have to get our priorities straight and speak out for what we
