As I Write: Youth, Citizenship, and the Democratic Society
An essay on how the youth can better serve a democratic country.
I suggest that the government should create avenues to showcase youth’s interest. Give the young a chance to become useful citizens by targeting their different fields. By enacting more laws and programs that would engage youth involvement, young people become useful citizens in our country. To the new lawmakers of the Philippines, my indelible ink signifies that I have done my part, and I trust that you will commit yourself to the big responsibility the youth have entrusted you.
As told once by our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal: “The youth is the hope of our country”. I believe that during these times when our country is under crises, we must give more attention to the youth. Assess them in their rights and duties. Develop in them the love of country. Most importantly, give them reasons why they should love our country.
Therefore, this is my advice to the young: If you’re a singer, sing for our nation. If you’re a painter, add color to the lives of our countrymen. If you’re a computer programmer, find ways to delete errors in our system. If you’re a photographer, always give your best shot. Do your best in everything you do but don’t be focused on yourself alone. If you want to be successful, your desires should be focused on our people.
Life is short and time is gold. The best time is now: while our bodies are strong and opportunities are coming, we should give our time to other people’s lives. Through this, we not only help build a better nation, we also glorify the name of the Lord. And if we glorify Him, He will help and guide our nation.
Lastly, for the elders and guardians of the youth: inculcate democracy in them. They say democracy starts at home. Don’t deprive them of their rights and train them to do their duties. Simple things like giving them the right to explain their wrongdoings, assigning them to do household chores and providing your children equal number of viands can contribute a lot. Give more attention to their potential, and turn their abilities into skills.
Help them use their skills not for their own profit. Teach them to ask not what our country can do for them, but what they can do for our country. By doing this, you also become active citizens in our democratic country. In the future, they will be ruling our country and become the next generation. I hope that you leave them by instilling in their hearts these attitudes wherever they go.
I’ve learned how poetry can help youth become concerned citizens in a democratic society. You learn if someone critiques your work. At the same time, if someone appreciates it, you strive to create more. If we appreciate our country, we must strive to make it better. If we notice flaws in our government, we should correct them. We are the writers of our destiny. And our destiny depends on how beautiful our work is. But in poetry, we have creative criticisms – all things can be resolved in a constructive and creative manner.
Before I put down my pen, I want to personally thank the organizers and staff of this literary contest for giving the youth a chance to engage in reform in a positive way. I am doing this not because it is a requirement, or for the honorarium, or because national themes always win writing contests. I write simply because I have something to say. I write because I love writing. And as I write, I believe my pen can make a difference.
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Post CommentJonathan
On June 16, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Good god is this article warped. Better citizens, a more democratic society, more nationalist feeling is the last thing people need. You don’t join the KKK to try and reduce lynchings, you withdraw all support from its’ evil, destroy its’ legitimacy and defend against its’ deprivations. Government and politics will only co-opt whatever virtues you try and feed it and just use it as legitimacy for evil ends.
“Help them use their skills not for their own profit. Teach them to ask not what our country can do for them, but what they can do for our country.”
This depressing quote is evidence of a mind fully inculcated into sacrifice morality, an anti-life code of ethics. In all people that adhere to sacrifice morality, there is a moral dissonance, because you can never truly be a good person. To strive to always be good under the sacrifice morality is to be with out possessions and dead. To sacrifice is to give something of value for something of lesser or no value. It does not create value, it only destroys it. If we all followed this despicable code, humanity would perish and only the sinful would be alive and successful.
Good things, the creation of value, virtue, etc… All come from VOLUNTARY, MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL relationships. Democracy, government, and politics are all INVOLUNTARY, PARASITIC relationships which destroy value and virtue.
If you want to make a better world, than profit from your time, talents, and efforts. Do not buy into the game of trying to work a system so as to violently bind your fellow human beings to your agenda and that of your representatives. Give value to others through your literary skills, and get value back. That is creation.
My advice to youth; rebel from the prison-like education system that seeks to infantilize them, rob them of their ability to think critically, and indoctrinate them with an ideology and morality which legitimizes the rule of a criminal elite. Strive to be an independent, sovereign, moral, skilled adult who seeks to live their dream. Through out time, most cultures have kids who entered puberty already transitioning right into adulthood. By 15 most kids have nearly the same mental, emotional and physical capacities as adults, and often times are actually at their peak in terms of performance in memory, learning, muscular development, etc…
Invest in yourself, live your dream, don’t let others try and de-rail you like the public school system and don’t waste your time and try and hurt others with immoral schemes like democracy.
julia
On October 26, 2008 at 3:12 am
unta man kamo laman ninyo ka mga uda data……..