Apathy prerevised
Choose an issue of importance to you—the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope—and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.
When reading the prompt, I immediately knew that I wanted to write on apathy. I have thought countless hours on the issue because it is so rampant nowadays and affects all aspects of life. Apathy is destroying this country, and it especially affects my generation.
To begin, Politics is probably the easiest example to give. Everyone will talk about how corrupt some politicians may be and how they should be thrown out of office, but when asked how they plan to do anything about it, you quickly discover that talking is about as far as people are willing to go. Most won't even vote the next election in order to remove the politician, or they will actually vote for them! When asked why they would do such a thing, they simply claim "it's just politics as usual, we can't do anything to change it." Which I truly believe is a self fulfilling prophecy. By thinking they can't do anything or not caring enough to try to do anything, they simply accept the results as inevitable when the fact of the matter is the results are really consequences created directly from their own actions (or lack of). If you want a political leader out of office, form a grass roots campaign, donate to the opponent, go hand out fliers, tell a friend, at the very least get out and vote! And what's worse is my generation now votes based not on credentials, but on "who seems cooler" or "who is hotter." If you vote one way or the other, that's fine, but vote for who you believe will best represent you, not who you would rather have a beer with. Which brings me to my next point, in America, the people control the government, not the other way around. Somewhere in the recent past this ideology has been reversed and we couldn't care enough to make it right. This country is headed in the wrong direction and it can be directly linked to apathy. Our country has nearly $16,000,000,000,000 of debt and we sit and ponder how we can keep voting for the same crooks year after year.
Being a senior in high school, I see apathy run rampantly in my peers over school, and as ashamed as I am to admit it, I have felt the same way before as well. School is not only meant to educate yourself, but also to teach you how to continue to educate yourself after you leave as well as preparing you for the real world. So what life lessons are we learning by not doing our homework or not studying for a test because we "don't feel like it" or rather watch a movie? How is this preparing ourselves for the outside world? It is crippling my generation and causing thousands of kids to graduate each year without the maturity or understanding to be able to make it on their own, which in turn not only affects my generation, but affects all.
The two things you aren't suppose to discuss with people are politics and religion. Well I've already mentioned one to you, now it is time to tackle the other. Being a Christian, I receive my morals from my beliefs. And chances are you receive your morals from your beliefs. Religion (or atheism) tells you who you are, where you came from, what your purpose is, how you should live your life, and where you're going. So what happens when you don't care enough to follow or at least understand what you claim to believe? We see an all time high in crime, divorce, incarceration, and single parents. Not to mention moral relativism and a lack of understanding or caring for other people. I am not here to preach or harp on about how awful we as a generation are becoming, but whatever you wish to believe, believe with a whole heart and show compassion to those around you.
Now I speak like I have authority on the issue and have overcome apathy and share my two cents in order to release others from their captivity to it. The truth of the matter is I still struggle with apathy, as we all do. And I honestly believe it is an issue that will always haunt each and every one of us until the grave. The question is how do we as a whole respond to this issue? Do we simply talk or do we do something about it?
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