Applaud youth for standing up for beliefs
Re: “Insinuating young people political pawns not helping” (Katia Bannister, Nov. 20, Citizen)
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Finally, we hear a voice of reason in an age of madness.
We’re doing our youth an immense disservice by insulting their intelligence and being so condescending as to suggest that they should “go back to school for a proper education”.
To those expressing those views, I say this: our youth are doing exactly what you raised them to do: speak up in the face of wrongdoing, get involved, and never, ever stay silent when you can make a positive change.
It’s part of a proud tradition of protest and advocacy that has been informed and inspired by the actions of the suffragettes in the early 20th century, to the Civil Rights movement, to Berkeley College, and now the Arab Spring and the months-long Hong Kong protests.
In short, we should be applauding our young people for standing up and speaking their minds, instead of implying that they don’t get to express an opinion about the world they inhabit.
One final note: telling a youth advocate to “go back to school” is no different than a misogynist telling his wife to “shut up and get back in the kitchen”. The only thing that’s different are the words.
Graham Fielding
Duncan
