TEENAGER'S RIGHTS?

A man is suspended for choosing a hairstyle that deviates from the 
bland normalcy of his peers.  A group of friends is kicked out of 
department stores, restaurants, and street corners for the crime of 
wanting to hang out together.  Millions of them are forced into 
little slots by the old men that run this country, pounding them 
into the molds of society, stripping them of any ambition or 
"deviance" from the norm.  

Needless to say, I am talking about teenagers.  

For those of you reading this above the age of 20, perhaps you are 
shaking your head at my rantings.  We have it easy, you say to 
yourself.  What are we complaining about?  We don't have to pay for 
a house, we don't have to worry about juggling kids, a job, and a 
dozen other little boring tragedies of life at once.  Perhaps not, 
but a great man once said that taxation without representation is 
tyranny.
 
Are we represented?

Our wills are beaten into submission by a culture that has ceased 
to think of us as people, and instead as mere numbers.  We are 
expected to follow every single fucked-up law this country can 
throw at us, and yet we get none of the benefits that law-abiding 
citizens are supposed to.  No rights to speak of.  The police, who 
are supposed to protect us, do nothing more than hassle us because 
our cheeks have more of the youthful vigor than theirs do.

So tell me … are we represented?

The answer, needless to say, is; Of course not.  The old men (and, 
more recently, women) in power are petrified at the idea that one 
day, we will take representation upon ourselves.  Why do you think 
they passed laws that try to prevent us from gathering with each 
other?  Why do you think that when teenagers in the 60's tried to 
get together to do a little good for the world, they sent the Riot 
Squad after them?  

Because they're scared shitless, that's why.

Quite simply, as the children of the world, we hold the future of 
this country in our hands.  No matter how hard the old men may 
cling to power, eventually their husks will dry out, and who will 
rise to power in their place?  The young, of course.  Which is why, 
if you've ever gone to school in the American educational system, 
you see rows and rows of students that are merely numbers on some 
politician's stat sheet, being taught to think alike, to not 
deviate from the norm, to be the old men of the next generation.  

As a matter of fact, it's now not enough to just make us all think 
alike; now, they want us all to look alike.  School uniforms are 
the last, final stroke of the old men's plan to obliterate 
individuality in the youth of America.  Do you remember the last 
time the world saw legions of students that looked alike, thought 
alike, and talked alike?  I do.  As I recall, a Berlin house 
painter was the dictator of that place for quite awhile.  He, too, 
was not fond of individual thought.  Perhaps you've heard of him.  
His name was Adolf Hitler, and the faceless legions behind him were 
children with the doctrine of Nazism pounded into their minds; in 
some circles, they were referred to as the Hitler Youth.

But why, you may ask, would the people in power want to turn the 
youth into submissive sheep?  The same reason that athletics are 
the real core of any school's educational plan; when smart 
individuals start thinking for themselves, they get things done.  
The old men in power don't want things to get done; just look at 
Congress.  When's the last time they did ANYTHING for the American 
people?  That's why institutions like football and baseball 
receive piles and piles of funding from the school boards, but try 
and get even a fraction of that money for something like new 
computers, a chess club or a debate team, and you'll get laughed 
out of the school board.  "You funny little man," they would say.  
"Why would we pay for something that encourages individuality and 
intelligence?  Why, when it's infinitely easier to control the 
little peons when they're stupid, submissive, and too blinded by 
the world to do anything?  We can't have Pavolv's dogs slipping 
their leashes, after all."

So what can be done about this?  Who knows?  The system is severely 
fucked up ... anyone with half a brain knows that.  It's designed to 
be unstoppable, and irreversible.  But then, so was Nazi Germany.  
And, while it's taken time, the old wounds from that unpleasant 
time have slowly healed over.  The only answer that is clear to me, 
is a revolution from within.  Keep your ambition, your optimism, 
your will to change the world to what you know is right.  These 
aren't immature things; these are the best of things.  Remember 
what is true, what is right, and what taxation without representation 
is.  

As Twisted Sister says, Stay Hungry.  

-The Anarkist