Can my generation handle this weight?

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

Last night was one of the worst nights of my life, and I haven't even turned 18 yet. How is my generation going to be able to handle the weight and the burden that comes with this victory? I'm starting to think more and more that we can't. Our world is dying, but when it was calling out for help... this country failed. Doesn't anybody care about future generations? If I am unable to see the bottom of the lake that I live on by the time I'm 25, then I will know we have failed. If I cannot get the financial aid I need for college, then I will know we have failed. If I get pregnant, and don't have the right to choose any longer, then I will know we have failed. If I can't see my homosexual friends and family members marry the ones they love, then I will know we have failed. If I die without the aid I need from the healthcare system, then I will know we have failed. The first step of failure has already been reached.

How could the voters have failed and put this weight on future generations? Are we going to be able to get up from this, or are we going to be left on the ground, gasping for air?

I think that the parties need to figure this out.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Quite honestly...

You will find the strength. Us oldies will be here to help. You won't have to face this alone.

Other generations have faced awesome challenges down. Yours will as well. I am confident of that. After all, what choices do you really have? The alternative is too horrid to contemplate.

[LastKnight]

2. its time for action.

the system is broken. it must be changed. maybe from the inside, maybe from the outside. who knows. but something is wrong with the way things are being run.

its up to our generation. even if we arent in the system we must do SOMETHING.

-LK

[Iris]

3. Sweetie, you're gonna have to try.

I'm 37 and when I was your age, we were facing the possibility Roe v. Wade being overturned, but now it's pretty much going to happen.

What I suggest is you get your friends together and start working towards passing women-friendly laws - like PAID family and medical leave, better childcare, more flexibility in the workplace. That way, having a child you didn't planned won't necessarily have to limit your choices in life.

[sbj405]

4. I have been thinking about you and JohnKleeb and the rest of our under 18

DU'ers. You guys are great! I am sorry that the country has failed you on this election. I know that you guys specifically are fantastic, smart, tough kids and will endure, but I worry about the rest of your generation and those after you. I don't think that people truly understood the significance of this vote. sigh.

[Historic NY]

5. Listen I've been through it and survived, you will too.

I remember 1972 McGovern-Nixon being 16 I was all worked up and helping out with the local Dems. My hero RFK took a bullet in 68 right after he won California primary. He would have more than likely gone on and won the presidency. I placed my hopes on George McGovern a WWII veteran that hopefully would end Vietnam. Well he was blown out in a major landslide. We all (people of my generation) went on, tomorrow is another day. Talk to your friends, explore new ideas and concepts, read newspapers, keep the juices flowing your time will come. People who have high ideas and are respectful of others rights, the land,sea & air, who want to make this planet a little better than it was found and share it with others will again have their day. Read, study, continue schooling, my advice to you to while the next 4yrs pass. It will make you stronger and more committed.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

8. We'll survive, yes

But will things ever be better? I see them growing worse daily.

[johnnie]

6. You'll be fine

Most of us have stories of when we "came of age". At the time I was turning 18 and all, the draft registration was re-enacted, we were messing with Kuwait, Reagan's trickle down shit was in full swing, the 80's were fairly new and I was just getting out of high school. My future looked pretty gloomy.
I think most people go through what you are going through...and most of us make it.
Just hang in there and realize that you are not alone.

[Iris]

7. yeah! The first time I had sex,

was the same year the Supreme Court put the first real restrictions on abortion.

[cally]

9. I felt close to the same when Ronnie won

The absolute disbelief that the country supported this whacko. * is much worse but we will survive.

[amazona]

10. my generation lived through Reagan

We never knew when the bombs would go off. Truly. Most of us knew the man had ALzheimers before he was first elected, so don't listen to revisionist history that he only became ill in 1987.

Check out "Threads" or "The Day After" for what we thought was in store for the future.

We're still here.

Don't be discouraged. Most leaders, most times, are bad or evil. People have always muddled through because there is no other alternative.

[Baja Margie]

11. You deal with it

the same ways we dealt with the night RFK was gunned down in Los Angeles, the same ways we dealt with it when Martin Luther King was shot.

Heck, you guys are so lucky to have the net and a support base that we never had.

You deal with it like a MARINE !!!


You fuck' em and keep going, you shoot first & ask questions later.