A Plea to Our Elders and a Call to Action to the Young

I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY. Excuse me for yelling sir. Please forgive me for my frustration. I sincerely apologize maam but no longer can this elephant sit in the room. No longer can I sit back  with the intentions of being respectful to my elders and allow the light of the torch to continue to dim. There comes a time when silence is betrayal. There is a fierce urgency of now! Its ironic that both of these quotes are from Dr. Martin Luther King who also dealt with the older clergymen who believed that he was acting in an “untimely and unwise” manner. Matter of fact if you were to research leaders throughout time i’m sure you will find that they faced the most opposition from the elders of that time. The elders were so comfortable that change was more of a threat than progress.  How could change be more of a threat than progress? All around the world ambitious young people are being turned away and that desire to add to the world is being substituted for mediocrity. Why?  Because those who are supposed to guide are halting progress because of fear that they will lose “power.” But don’t you know that when the candle spreads its fire it doesn’t lose its flame?  Spreading your power doesn’t take anything away from you if anything it adds to your “power!”  We are the only species of the creator that allow our young to leave us without understanding the basics of survival. Teach me! Don’t tell me to shutup, pay my dues, and wait my turn.  There is a fierce urgency of now! Our babies are dying mentally, spiritually, and physically now! We can’t wait! We will not wait! For if we do we will also be doing an injustice to our future. Please don’t take this as disrespect believe me it is not my intentions but this elephant is taking up too much space. I am not your enemy! I want to be clear to the young people there are some elders who are trying to feed us their wisdom but our arrogance makes us believe that we are not starving. But we are! Many of our elders have fought and were willing to die for us so thats why they are skeptical about just passing the torch to anyone. Are you ready to take the torch? Can you handle holding the torch? If not why are you requesting it? Fame, money, influence? These are the wrong reasons to want the torch. The torch is only meant to light the way, thats it! Can you handle the pain of holding the torch? To my young people our future can’t wait for us to “pay our dues.” We must act now! We must give back to our community now! We must reach back and inspire right now! Tomorrow may never come and Yesterday is forever gone all we have is right now!