A Generation Y Manifesto

Kyle Bagenstose is a young writer/reporter  very engaged in his life wrote this piece and agreed to have it published on PhillyEcoCity.

I refuse to let us be the useless generation,

That lives for big screen TVs,

And $100 dollar Nikes.

I refuse to give pop stars my veneration.

To be blinded by the flashing lights,

And get caught up in what is trite.

I refuse to become a culture of imitation,

And let corporations tell us what is cool,

And group us into consumer pools.

I refuse to let America become a lesser nation.

Led by those with eyes colored green,

While they ignore those who cannot be seen.

And I refuse to be scared to speak my mind,

To my government and the powers at be,

And anyone else who wants to silence me.

And I refuse to be a slave to the daily grind:

Hard work is fine to put food on the table,

But it can make the American dream a fable.

And I refuse to be discouraged by the slope of the climb.

No matter how stacked the chips may seem,

No matter how few people are on my team.

And I refuse to lose my spirit in time,

No matter how slowly it crawls,

I will carry my cause.

Finally, I refuse to let these just be words on a page.

I refuse to finish these lines, and be different offstage.

I will follow through, and with our time’s trials engage,

With hope for the future– for a new, better age.