Quantcast The Johns Hopkins News-Letter
College Media Network

News-Letter

Current Issue:
Issue date: 12/4/08
Opinion

Adhering to clean energy standards

  • Print
  • Email
The lack of passion is one of the greatest tragedies of our slavery to oil. We are the people who fought back against the tyrannical rule of Britain in the late 1700s. We are the people who proudly and loudly contested the abomination that was plantation slavery. We are the people who called for equality in women's rights and justice for African Americans. We are the people who stood up against the evils of the Soviet Union. Our success as a nation is a success that has not come from complacency. It has come from a desire to be passionate. It is a desire that will never accept the norm insofar as it is harmful. We are a society that has been built with the powerful heartbeat that is revolution.

Yet when it comes to the biggest crisis of our generation it seems we have fallen silent. There is no passion. There isn't a break from conformity. The heartbeat of the revolution has stopped. We haven't fought back against the system of oil dependence. We haven't made a push for change on the most important issue of our time. Our common voice has wavered. This is the calling of our generation. America has been made great because the youth recognized the unacceptable and committed to overthrow it. The footsteps we follow are generational. Just like those Americans who came before us, we must commit to making oil dependency a real issue.

Our commitment on this matter pervades just a few discussion groups, T-shirts and petitions. It requires a concentration of demanding change. Rallies, marches and protest writing are all keys to our peaceful revolution.

Uniting our voices will finally make this dependency an issue. We cannot allow any recently-elected officials to skirt the issue. After all, the worst effects of global warming will not necessarily affect the generation in elected office now. It will affect our generation and the generations to come. The politicians and corporate executives have no reason to change and protect our future unless we force them to realize that we will not be left to clean up the mess that oil dependency has caused. Force them to act now.

Until we can fight back, we will remain enslaved - enslaved to all we abhor because we aren't standing up for what we truly believe in. Luckily, we can break the shackles of this slavery to oil by using our collective voice to no longer be complacent individuals, but rather to be a revolutionary unit with one common voice. The time for revolution is now. The time for this slavery is over.
< prev Page 2 of 2

Article Tools

Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2

jt

posted 12/05/08 @ 3:23 PM EST

Though passionate, your assessment is unfortunately entirely too sophomoric. "We" didn't overthrow the tyranny of England. WE didn't stand up against plantation slavery, equality for blacks, women's sufferage, or anything else. (Continued…)

(1 reply)   Details   Reply to this comment

Post a Comment

  • NOTE: Email address will not be published

Type your comment below (html not allowed)

  I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Advertisement

Advertisement