My Appeal To Adults: Make Your Actions Reflect Who You Are

Dear adults, I am a 19-year-old child, a freshman in college who still fully depends on parents for tuition, bills and pocket money. I am, like any other child, full of dreams and ambitions with a raging heart wanting to make an impact. I am a child who is taught manners like basic courtesy, taught in Sunday school how to be nice to my neighbors, to be respectful, or to turn the other cheek. I cannot even count how many times you adults tell us that we are the future, and it gives me the motivation to wake up every day and nurture myself. However, today, I believe that you adults, you are wrong, and you must change your way I am only a child, but I know that our future is more important than an election or voting for a Republican.

I am afraid to go out into the sea as I might get infected by the polluted water. I am afraid to even take a deep breath because I do not know whether the air is full of chemicals. I am only a child, but I know that our future is more important than protecting your political agenda or whether we kneel or stand for national anthems. I am afraid to go out with friends to breath the fresh air and to enjoy peace at night because almost every week, a friend about my age gets shot by guns. I am afraid to do what you adults have taught me: to have a strong opinion and to think critically, as it might offend another person. I am only a child and I do not know the answers to all the problems in the world, but I want to let you know that neither do you, and yet you act like you have all the solutions to every problem we are facing. I am a child and I think the future of children is important to you adults, but it does not seem that way to us.

You adults would rather attack someone on twitter rather than teach us how to be nice to our neighbor. You would rather cut down money for your own benefit than to fund schools and education centers so that we can get a better education. You would rather play golf than teach us how to be a good leader. You would rather offend a female than teach us courtesy and manners. Some of us might be Republicans, others might be Muslims, politicians, policemen, reporters, but all of us are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and we are all someone’s child.

I am only a child, yet I know that we are all parts of the same family, humankind, and the same home: Earth, with 7 billion brothers and sisters, and animals millions strong, and no walls or borders can deny that. I am only a child, yet I know that I should look at the person next to me as a human being beautifully made by God. I was taught sharing is loving, and that making sacrifices for others is a good thing to do, and yet I am confused at what you adults have been doing. We here in America have everything: shelter, food, iPhone, TVs, Wi-Fi… and yet we are afraid of losing something after we share, that we are consumed by greed. I watch the news and I am shocked that I could be one of those children in Syria living with guns and violence, or I could be a child born into a family that lives on the street in India, or I could be one of the kids in Florida.

I am only a child, yet I know that if all the money that was spent on propaganda, space force, nuclear weaponry was spent on finding cures, improving education, or creating environmental resolutions. . . our world would be a wonderful place. You adults teach us at school how to behave, how to turn the other cheek, to not engage in conflict or fights, to respect others, to be responsible, to be willing to share, to not be mean or selfish, and that with great power comes great responsibilities. Then why do you adults go out there and do the things you teach us not to do? We are your own children, and you always comfort us that everything will be okay, but I believe you do not deserve the right to say that to us anymore. Is our future even in your priority list, or you adults are just too busy tweeting mean things and belittling other people? You teach us that what we do will tell who we are, but what you adults have been doing scares me. Please make your actions reflect who you are.