The Youth is too Quiet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The youth is too quiet!!!! These are the words of Congressman John Lewis when one of our team mate asked him on what his position was on the youth of today. Those that have spoken to the congressman before will note that he has two particular voices, voice 1 is the everyday acceptable voice that speaks to you with peace and quietness and voices 2 is one that holds your attention for ransom until your full being pays attention to what is spoken, this voices emotes stories of struggle and misfortune that the Negro nation went through in the US and still goes through this is the voice that he used to answer the question “ the youth is too quiet!!”. The gain of independence was only the first step for the Negro nation and South Africa knows fully well that paper rights are just that, until they can fully be enforced against every one equally. Mr Julian Bond who had been along side the great King and Congressman Lewis had told us stories of how the movement began and yet to had warned us of the immaculate memory Congressman John Lewis has. As Congressman began to explain what he meant by the words the youth is too quiet he reiterated that when the civil movement broke in the US it was the youth in varsity that took the stance and made it too strong to be silence. He came back to SA and said it was the same youth in ‘76 that mobilised together and resurrected a movement that would soon over throw the regime, were as they could have said to themselves that the “leaders” are in exile or in prison but they took initiative and went strong to fight against injustices thrown to them and in the year 2011 it is the same youth that has started what is now called the ‘Arab Spring’ because they were tired of the dictatorship and corruption of the government amongst other this. The youth is too quiet statement rings so true in the communities we stay in, the varsities we spend our youths in and in other places we choose to place ourselves in. In our own campuses things such as discrimination and racism still exist, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not does not extinguish the reality, we are more incline to group ourselves with people of the same colour and language. Issues that we as the youth can take a stance on while we still can. Issues such as teenage pregnancy, AIDS, unemployment, complacency, poverty etc as the youth we could choose to do something about these issues and more instead of waiting for the government to come in and do it for us. I fully agree the youth is too quiet, when some one is being bullied, raped, abused and many more other horrific things we choose to participate rather than stand out and be the voice of justice, the voice of truth. We reject being different.