A Younger Perspective [Part 1]: To Kill 100,000 Mockingbirds

As I'm typing this, It has just became Saturday morning (12:40 am roughly), and I'm up pondering. While your average teenager might be wondering about sports, hip-hop, sex, etc., etc., I am wondering about the current state of our government, my rights as a youthful citizen, our way of thinking, and the planet as a whole. But before I get into those topics, I should explain how I got into politics, and selected parts of my past.

My decent into the dark depths of how our country (and in extension, the rest of the world) runs things, was unofficially on that grim day of September 11th, 2001. I was only seven at the time (I am 17 going on 18 this year), and as you might guess, I didn't quite understand at the time. I was pulled out of school by my father (who himself is a firefighter), and brought to the twin lighthouses of Sandy Hook (located in Monmouth County, New Jersey). It was a small area, with a clear view of downtown Manhattan, and the Trade Centers, where we watched the smoke rise and the towers fall (the latter is a bit hazy, as it was ten years ago, and I was younger). Three days later, we too a ferry into downtown Manhattan. When I arrived, I was shocked to see everything covered in dust. Concrete dust. It was like stepping into an alien world, with a deadly winter. I didn't wear a surgical mask to cover my nose and mouth, and we weren't aware of the Anthrax attacks either (thankfully we didn't get sick). during our visit there, we (me, my father, my older brother, and my younger sister) went to the NYFD and gave the firefighters drawings. They smiled and thanked us. (10 years later, I go to a 9/11 memorial to find out that the firefighter I gave my drawing to died, probably from the dust.) It was during that week I learned that there are people who were out to kill us for what we belive, our opinions, and our lifestyle among other things.

[Fun Fact: American Thrash Metal band Slayer unintentionally released their 8th studio album on 9/11/01, the same day as the attacks, which of course, led to controversy.]

I also learned that what I don't and can't see CAN hurt me. News anchors and teachers and many other adults talking about terrorists and the Middle East. I've never heard of the Middle East before then, or knew what a muslim was. I learned about wars and religions (my family was never religious). And even with all the reasons on why they hated each other, I still wondered why they had to fight with one another (I would learn the true reasons later). My first bully was of Mid-Eastern decent (I'm not sure which country), and I was scared shitless of him (since then I've stopped being afraid of race, but you can forgive me for being naive, right?).

Fast forward to 2008, I'm in my last year of middle school, and I'm feeling nervous about going to high school, though it is early in the school year (November). I wasn't into politics much, but I have heard of Obama and McCain's campaigns. Everyone was excited about Obama, not because he would be the first black president, but because of his "Yes we can" and "Hope" way of thinking, so I naturally got absorbed into Obama's charisma. We watched his inauguration during our lunch period, me with a wide grin that things might turn for the better.

Fast forward again almost four years later, and that hope I had has faded away like a distant memory. Since the I've seen the darker side of our country, and have grown to have a more pessimistic view on the world (partly due to my Aspergers... or High Functioning Autism. There's no fucking difference.). It was only last November when I first watched The Young Turks on youtube. And then a month later, watched them debut on Current. Cenk sounnded like a man I can trust (and that's saying alot, considering I can barely trust my own parents, who divorced when I was 5). I've kept up with this GOP race, and I'm scratching my head until I bleed, wondering how people can believe the candidates' lies. Things like the internet (which is being threatened by SOPA/PIPA), Occupy Wall Street and various other areas, and Current TV, have risen my hopes that there is the light of thinking and reasoning, even in the darkness of the various governments, evangelicals, media, and extremists' influences.

I've been at this for over an hour now (2:00 am) and I need to sleep. I'll probably post it tommorow morning, and I will get to my thoughts mentioned in the first paragraph whenever I can, so it'll be episodic. So until then good night and good luck... you'll need it.