Mother Nature and Me

For this class, my main focus will be on environmentalism. Call me a hippie, or call me a tree-hugger, it does not matter. We all live on this Earth together, and as of right now, it is our only one. I'm not the type of girl who will go out and buy a hybrid or makes my own paper - I'm part of the newest generation of environmentalists. I recycle. I garden. I carpool. I have respect for the Earth that I live on. I do my part, and spread the word about it. An environmentalist movement may be able to be started by a single person, but it cannot be finished unless everyone pitches in. My focus with public writing is to spread the word of our world, and help others focus on showing gratification to our Earth, and keeping a respect for nature. Earth Day was a little over a month ago, and World's Ocean Day is on the 8th of June. But how many people knew that? These events can bring together a society, we have to spread the word.

I have never written a letter to an official about a political matter, because there is only so much a single representative can do. I am not deterred by starting small, but by placing matters into someone else's hands and expecting them to follow through with the same passion as oneself is absurd. Yes, I would write a few letters to enlist in their help, but it would not be as effective. My first step towards spreading the word of environmentalism to the world was to write a children's book. And I have, it is illustrated, but not published. A long process, but one that will benefit me and the world. All I'm saying is that yes there are benefits to addressing an issue with a political figure, but we have all seen the promises that have been made in the political world that have not been completed. By taking the problem into my own hands, and doing what I can do on the spot with the passion I have, I believe that I could make a bigger wave then to just simply write to a political figure. Engagement into a political issue for myself is created when it makes sense. The world is a singular thing, a finite thing, that needs protecting, much like an endangered species on the edge of extinction. That is a similar trigger for many people; the fear of an ultimatum. It is unfortunate that we have to let ourselves get to the edge of extinction before we are shaken out of our stupor and forced into making changes. But that fear works, and creates drastic results - to a point. The reluctance by myself and others to engage in political matters is fear of being wrong. As the generational gap continues to widen, we are forced to fight against the actualities of our reality. The older generation is stuck in their ways, and will continue to be in positions of power until their death; as a younger generation, we know what we want to change, but are unable to create a difference in the minds of the top dogs. People will continue to fight, but it is not until the generational gap has become non-existent, and the positions of power are filled with people ready to change and better the world the way that our generation sees it, that we will achieve what we want. The almost impossibility of changing the minds of the older men and women that run our world creates a halt in our attempts to make the world better. 

The discussion that the younger generation is not active in political issues is one that I disagree with, and have disagreed with for a long time. The older generation had their way of making 'changes' - they called it democracy. Democracy is said to work because the people vote for change, but the people are only allowed to vote on what political officers decide need to be changed. This way of politics is old and outdated, and we, the younger generation, have no interest in a system that doesn't work. We have a new way of politics, one that is created through social networks and other new-age ways. We are all still interested in making the world a better place, we all still care about environmentalism, foreign affairs, wars, taxes, gay marriage and so on a so forth. We just have a different way of showing it. For example, one of the countries biggest accomplishments in the past few weeks has been the death of Osama Bin Laden. The older generation recieved their news through CNN, or the radio, depending on the age of the listener - and their reaction was of pride. The younger generation? Most of us found out through Facebook - that's the honest trust. But guess what? We still reacted with pride. On URI's campus, there was an irruption of 'U.S.A' chants and cheering, our way of celebrating. The generations are going to change as we grow, that's the natural adaptation of the human species. But we all still have the same issues, and we are all still going to work at them - just in a different way.