By Madeleine Gabriele, Y9
You say I am too young.
Too young to know, do or be anything but what society tells me too.
And you’re right. I am too young.
Too young to feel the pain and violence inches from my face.
Too young to know the crime and hatred in this world by just watching the silent judgments in the eyes and faces around me.
Too young for homophobia, racism, sexism, rape, self-harm and suicide, gun violence and school shootings.
I hear about different problems in this world everyday, whether it’s global warming killing millions of animals and burning lands, or another story about a cop shooting the wrong person for the wrong reason.
We were born with information at our fingertips, but we’ve been told to be silent because the adults are speaking. Because we are “hormonal teenagers who can’t control our emotions” and therefore can’t think without someone pressuring our minds to fit society’s ways.
We’ve been fighting a war our whole lives, with ourselves and silently with others.
We didn’t choose this path, it was set from the start.
But we intend to right the wrongs.
To fix the problems.
To save what we can after all the trauma and pain that the world’s dumped on our shoulders.
We cannot do this alone. And you can help.
So help.
Stand with us as we fight, non-violently, for our rights.
And stand with us as we rise from the ashes that have fallen from the fires burned before us.
If we can change a few minds,
We can change all of them.
