halves

I tend to not finish things. I am quite good at starting projects, but finishing has never been my forte. As soon as I see things not going for the outcome I want, and do not see a way to change it, I bail. While this has not been a huge problem in my life, I do acknowledge that it has prevented me from accomplishing all that I want to. And while i can acknowledge it, for some reason I have a great difficulty doing something about it.


On that note, I wrote this when I was flying out to Texas. I don't know how to finish it, add to it, or edit it. I was reading the paper while flying out there, and something got me all riled up, so I wrote it in my notebook (I always carry a 3"x2" notebook w/ me in a pocket) and typed it up the other day.

Just remember, I was really riled up at the time from the article and everything that was going on in Texas. I debated self-censoring, but decided against it because my passionate moments are few and far between these days, and this was one.



It took all of about four years for my age group to go from Generation Y to Generation Whine. "They all want corner offices." "They want mid-level pay." "They expect a company car." The list goes on. The insults keep coming, and not many have risen to defend us.
And can you blame them? Between the baby boomers and the "Greatest Generation," our elders can be quite intimidating. They were able to take the change they sought in the 60s and become the yuppie generation, preferring to buy pollutant-heavy vehicles like SUVs and Hummers instead of more environmentally-friendly modes of transport. Their free love became STDs, and they gradually created the drugs to cure and battle these diseases. Just hope you have health insurance to get them.
They did not outgrow all of their 60s ways, though. They voted for the man they'd rather have a beer with than the one who was instrumental in funding the Internet. They clamored around "compassionate conservatism," a term that includes water boarding, a war that eats up our tax dollars, and repeals of some our most basic civil liberties.
And now my generation is going to pay to clean up this mess. They are the step sisters off at the never-ending ball, and we're Cinderella holding the mop and bucket. Except we don't have a fairy Godmother to make everything better.
This country has a national debt of over nine trillion dollars, which comes out to about $25,000 per American. And believe me, it did not come about by my generation letting our best buds Visa and Mastercard pay for everything.
And with the baby boomers nearing retirement, guess who is going to be saddled with that debt?
Was it my generation, many still paying off college loans, who took it upon themselves to obtain mortgages their incomes couldn't keep up with? Were we the ones who said, "Well, I can handle three years at 4%, and sure I can handle double that for the 27 years after!"
And $3 trillion later, many of them are thinking of sticking by a man who can't tell Sunni from Shiite, yet wants to continue paying for a war we can't afford. I know we were promised cheaper oil when we invaded Iraq, yet clearly the opposite is true. I don't think anyone reading this will be alive in 100 years, but if some have their way, we will be fighting for cheaper oil in Iraq.
John McCain needs to learn he McCan't.
Americans say they want change? My generation doesn't want change. We demand it. They are the ones who dubbed us Generation Y. I prefer to see us as Generation Why Not.
We spend our spring breaks in New Orleans and other impovershed areas, volunteering for organizations like Habitat for Humanity. We serve in the Peace Corps. We buy Priuses, and not just because Rory Gilmore had one. We volunteer our time, and donate 2 hours of our $10/hour job to a candidate who has finally managed to tap into our political indifference and ignite it into a country-wide flame. We know the resources you over-used will not last forever.



and that's where it ended because I didn't know where to take it at the time.