Hello all!
Well, at our SA meeting last night there was one amazing video that was shown, an article read, and a spectacular presentation made by one of our phychology professors, Dave Landers. He is a professor that has been with Saint Mike's for three decades and has actually been teaching an AIDS awareness class here for about 25 years. The reason that he addressed the SA was just to make us more aware of things that are going on around us. He really hit on many great points, and although at first I really had no idea what his presentation was for, I realized that was the problem. I was trying to listen to Dave and figure out what he was telling me to do, I could not figure out what he wanted from me. All he wanted from our student body was awareness of what was going on around us, and that was all.
He opened up with talk of the Iraqi war and how one of our alum had been in the war for a very long time. The alum asked him if our students were even aware of the war, and Dave said he did not know. He knew he hold peace vigils and put on an event last year about experiences in the war and that we are aware of it, but he does not know how much we are dealing with it. He knew we were dealing with it, yet we were being silent about it. That was the whole point of his presentation, from an article he had read to us, we are the Q generation, the quiet generation.
I know that for a fact when it comes to voting, ages 18- 25 are the worst with only about 1/4th of our age group getting out to the poles and making a difference. I am honestly quite awe struck by this idea because I have so many friends here who are highly involved in politics and have a strong voice for it. It is as if they are constantly arguing about politics, who they want as the next President, and the wrong direction that our country is heading in today. Yet, when it comes to election time, they are say they were too busy to vote or forget to get their ballots in on time. Wait, what? You argue with everything and have such a strong opinion but when you finally have the chance to make a difference about what you are fighting for, you don't! After the video came out about Al Gore and global warming, many college students felt and around the nation, that if he was elected President instead maybe the US would be in a better place. Well, you can blame yourselves somewhat for that for not voting, 20 million of us did not vote, that is a staggering number. We as a generation have an ability to change the world since we will be the next doctors, teachers, lawyers, professors, and Presidents. We need to start making a move now before we forever remain the Q generation.
We are a strong generation that does a lot of volunteer work in foreign countries and are getting extremely involved, yet outside of the College community this may not be known about us. Instead, we are known as the technology generation. There was one amazing power point show that he showed us that gives a lot of statistics about our generation and it is absolutely incredible. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU WATCH!!! Go to youtube.com and then search for Did you know and pick the show Did you know 2.0!!! This will seriously open your eyes to our generation, but there are a few facts that really hit me and must be shared/
We are the technology age and it seems that if it is not done online, we do not care about it. For instance, Ebay started in 1996 and by 2006 it generates $6 billions a year in revenue! That is a very high number for only 10 years of operation. We also receive more text messages in a day than the population of the entire planet. Email and the internet seem to run our lives and truly I feel that everything needs to be quick and available to us and if it is not, then why have it? One depressing fact that that millions of websites are made everyday with an average 21 year old, 50 percent have put content on the internet. Yet, only 3,000 books were published last year. This worries me because books that are centuries old and available for us to know today. But will we be able to say that about computers and the internet centuries from now? Well, I highly doubt that if you ask me, I am pretty sure one of my roommates computers crashed 5 times in the past 3 years, my other roommate's computer a mac, just crashed and he had to service it to get it back, and mine is definitely on its way after only 2 and a half years. So, where are we heading then in this technology age and will our computers and technology be able to stand the tests of time? Well, who knows and only time will tell but I know my computer can not!
This was one amazing presentation that made all of us think. I know that I do not want to remain as the Q generation. We are not much of activists and it almost seems that when we want to help an organization out, we feel good about just handing out money and sitting back to watch. I am not saying that is true about every college or every college student because there are many out there who are being pro-active and making amazing contributions to change our world as we know it. But issues such as global warming, AIDS, and being quiet is something we need to get a hold of now. What will the world be like for our children and our grand children? Will we be leaving them a world that if they do not fix what we ignored it could dramatically effect the outcome of their survival? That does sound a little dramatic in talk, but it really is a scary thing to think about.
I am also not trying to be almighty here and say that I am the perfect example of trying to change the world. I know that I have led no movements or made any contributions to helping to end world issue, but this writing is a start. I am not well aware of what is going on around me more than I was before. The whole point of awareness is to be a constant reminder that things around the world need to change. In India, 100 percent of college graduates know English and it is thought that by 2010 China will be leading English speaking country. What does this say about us, the most powerful nation in the world? How many of you out there can fluently speak another language. I highly encourage you to view the website and just become fully aware of the world around you. And if you are passionate about one of these issues, you can make a difference. By sparking the flame of change you could light a fire under us all to start and change this world altogether. Let us not be the Q generation, but the the generation of change. We are capable of so much, so lets get out there and do it!
Joshua
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