Daily Mississippian

Young people are easily dismissed. From a young age, the earliest anyone can remember, we are told that our opinions are less valid than our elders.

We don't have the experience, we haven't accomplished anything, we haven't yet learned all we need to know.

Perhaps if we haven't seen the world change before us, it's because we've never seen it static.

Our parents run the world today. And they've done an incredible job, bringing our school, our country and all of humanity forward to places never before seen.

But for all their successes, they've left us with new problems as yet unsolved. The world is getting warmer and the oil is running out.

The America we've come to know is paranoid, but all the Paxil in the world won't help us solve the problems our parents have left us.

Yes, they always held our hands, but have they guided us down the right path? If our generation just follows the old way, how will we ever know?

Hindsight is 20/20, and every one of us would have sunk our fortunes in Google stock had we know before what we know now. But does a history of mistakes, a deeper past, make your views more valid than mine?

Are college students less capable of making decisions because we lack that elusive piece of paper, or because we can't collect Social Security? Why are the "Echo Boomers," "Generation Y," whomever we are, marginalized? Why do we feel entitled? Why aren't we expected to be the greatest generation?

Thomas Friedman, however, disagrees with the idea that we care too little for the good of ourselves and our world. After visiting our campus last week he, labeled us "Generation Q" - the Quiet Americans.

He rightly points out that, for all the hype about our apathy, we have retained our idealism. So why aren't we as "radical and politically engaged" as we need to be?

We grew up in the D.A.R.E. program, with wars abroad, corrupt politicians and a hole in the ozone.

If we're apathetic, maybe it's because we grew up on ADD prescriptions, with 50 cable channels to choose from, Nintendo to play when we got bored and a limitless supply of cookies in the jar.

Who needs ambition, activism or responsibility when you already have it made? We were born with the proverbial "silver spoon."

Don't get me wrong, youth comes with its own advantages, ones that all those mature adults seem to quickly lose sight of.

We're apt to take chances, but when it comes to politics, the world is changing very slowly, and we're doing little to prod it along.

It's because standing up, taking a gamble and trying to break the old paradigms doesn't make sense to most of us.

We live in an advertising-driven world of political correctness. We don't feel comfortable taking a stand, because we know there will be repercussions.

We can't curse the president in the newspaper if we want to stay in print, just like we can't criticize our professors and keep a GPA.

We can't lobby for medical marijuana without becoming a suspect. We can't criticize the police for fear of getting tazed. We can't point out the follies of student media and still get published. We'll stay obedient if we don't want our cookie jar taken away.

That's why we're quiet. It's not because we don't care. It's because we know that if you can't say anything nice, oftentimes, you're better off keeping your mouth shut.

We've got plenty of well-founded opinions that won't get us anywhere. Sometimes we're lucky just to have them fall on deaf ears. Courage or political correctness? Success demands the latter.

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