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Questions we never thought we'd have to answer

© Heather Ringrose

How to Respond to Questions we never thought we’d have to answer.

As North American teenagers, we have a lot more freedom than our peers in other countries. The events in the past months have forced all of us to re-evaluate our values, our opinions, and our lives. Indeed, the last month has been so different from what any of us are used to, that many of us have been unable to realize that the terrorist attacks really happened. This is the twenty-first century and I speak for many when I say that we are shocked that things like this still go on.

On the other hand, we could realize that this was only inevitable. Americanization has been an issue that has slowly been heating up to this- this explosion. We have also known the plight of the Afghans- their horrible government, their sufferings, and their problems, for a long time. In fact, Afghanistan has been in the news for ages: there have been reports of the huge Buddhas being destroyed, and the citizens being terrorized by the Taliban all year. And if there is a positive side to this, it is the fact that the world has finally stopped ignoring its suffering fellow human beings. Once the Afghans, and all the other suppressed citizens in the world, have endured the final challenges, the war, they will experience new-found freedom.

Many teens I have spoken to have said that war is not the way to go. I would like to know what other teens think about this. All our generation really knows about war, we know from video games, movies, and books. We have never been closely touched by the events we experience so safely through our screens. I have set up a survey and encourage every teen reader to respond. Perhaps this event just seems to surreal to us. We have suddenly be jolted out of our false-sense of security and exposed to a vicious real world of hate, violence, and idiocy. Our own people have been killed and we don’t know how to respond.

In the past, youth of our age have gone to war and fought for our countries. Our generation will be the one to fight for world peace. Our generation will be the one to eliminate injustice from the globe. Isn’t it rather ironic? An extremely common goal for teens and young adults is to contribute to world peace and to make the world a better place as adults. Suddenly we have a chance, and there is a lot of hesitation about what to do. How many of us are willing to go