Dear Editor,
On my way to class this past Wednesday I turned at the corner of West Market and State of Franklin where a stand of old beech trees was felled just a few days before.
Driving by and reading the articles in the paper later that morning left me so disgusted that I could hardly pay attention in class.
Tears of anger filled my eyes as I thought, this is so wrong – someone should have stopped this atrocity!
Someone.
When I was only a child I believed I could save the world. As I look back it seems so naive. After only 21 years I find myself fighting against bitterness toward a society slow to change.
I have tried to save the world and been shot down by those who are “older and wiser.” They appreciated my enthusiasm, they said, but I was unrealistic. We have been doing things this way, they said, and it’s dangerous to change.
Each time I heard this, my enthusiasm dwindled until I began to believe them.
I began to think that I couldn’t change anything and I began to depend on those more experienced, and more charismatic.
I have become complacent — I don’t hesitate to complain about what’s going on around me, but since “there’s nothing I can do,” I let someone else do it: I let someone else save the world.
This is one of humanity’s greatest problems – those who care to make the world a better place have lost hope and stamina, leaving it to someone else.
Friends, it is time that we hear the truth of the matter – there is no one else. It is only us and if we don’t change this world, no one will.
So let us cling to our childhood dreams of a place where peace abounds, where honesty is stronger than bureaucracy, and where we see one another through eyes of acceptance rather than judgment.
Cling to that dream and fight for it even when it seems there is no hope.
It is people like you and me who will make this world a better place, not the politicians, not the religious leaders – you and I as we live every day to the fulfillment of our dreams.
So let’s get out there and do something, damn it! Let’s be the ones to take initiative and affect the change we long to see!
Kathryn Shanks

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