A twelve year old girl, sits shaking in an alley corner. Her anorexic body is sweating and convulsing as she shoots up alone. On the floor next to her is a dirty needle; her hand clutches a bag filled with white powder, as the other clutches her knees to her chest. As she rocks back and forth, her eyes are dazed and terror-stricken. The next street over, men with bags like hers, offer this white death to others. This is our future, Generation X.

Two rival gangs fight in the streets near an elementary school, and when gun shots are drowned out by the cry of another dead child, this is my voice. The death of these children is my death. “Drugs, sex, and rock’n’roll” these are the typical stereotypes paired with the subject of teenagers; but have you ever looked beyond the superficial? Don’t you see us fighting to survive? Who breeds this violence and hatred in us? Our parents and role models, whom we see smoking pot, drinking alcohol, thinking that whatever they do will not effect our lives. Every day I see people dying, and the mortality rates continue to climb.

I am sure you want to ask why, if we know drugs will kill us, do we use them? Drugs serve as an escape from the ruined homes in which many of us live. Gangs make up for the family which many do not have. Battered; abused; both physically and mentally; those of us called Generation X, endure as best we can.

The children who are considered by adults so sweet and perfect, know nothing of life, of pain. Society is a just a great gathering of people trying to conform to the standards of each other. One generation follows the traits of another. When parents say, “Well, that was a different time...” in reference to the drug use of the sixties, what are they saying except that they have double standards. Nothing ever changes. Society, politics, racism; they all continue to exist while people fade away into nothing but memories...

Have you ever looked at the amount of money politicians spend on their campaigns?? The money spent on political campaigns alone, could serve to get hundreds of kids off the streets into drug rehab, and counseling. I have no respect for people who make so much money and yet do so little for the community. Politics is so full of “politically correctness” that nothing can be done. Blacks are being racially excluded, American Indians need their right’s, Latinos are being excluded because they do not speak English. It is all stupidity. We are all the same color underneath!!! So what if your people were repressed 300 years ago, why must that be your excuse now? Society has changed so much, that you are now merely taking advantage of your ethnicity, and yet you want equality. What is equality worth if you want more advantages than others? And yet, equality is the cry of children today. All we want is for you to look at what is inside, instead of what is on the outside.

I have had friends die, I have fallen prey to drugs like anyone else, but now I try to stop the pain of others. The government does nothing for us, because we are not old enough to vote we don’t matter. Politicians convince people that twenty thousand dollars is enough to make a difference in many children’s lives but what do they plan to do with that money? The money is deposited into the school district, or into local youth centers. What are they doing to try to get kids off the drugs and the streets though? My voice is drowned out by the cries of those worse off than me, and I cry all the more for those who must die for the ignorance of others. I have been clean for two years now, and I have helped my friends get clean, in my own life that seems like a lot, but as a whole that is like a drop of water in the ocean. Who is going to help the girl who is doing crystal and heroine, and sells her body to pay for her addiction. The local government’s hands are tied because they are afraid of being socially incorrect. Adults pretend to not see what is happening, because it is their fault.

As long as society cannot accept what they are seeing, they cannot do something to stop the insanity. Until people open their ears, they will not hear the pleas for help. Unless we decide that we are all united in a similar cause as Americans, not as individual races like “Latinos, African Americans, Caucasian, etc....” then my generation is going to continue destroying itself, lost in a void that can only be destroyed by someone taking responsibility into their own hands. My voice is ignored by the democracy; ignored by politicians and law makers, it is the silent pleas of a universal conscience to help save others; a voice that continues to go unheard or is merely being ignored...