The Years Ahead | Teen Ink

The Years Ahead

October 8, 2007
By Anonymous

Monday mornings were always the most boring. No doubt about that, you could ask anyone. First period, World History, had to have been the most gruesome. Not because it was boring, but because you were still so sleepy from a short weekend. However, this morning would mark a change.

My teacher had assigned us quite a bit of work that morning and amoungst it all was an short essay. Joy, I thought how could it get any worse?
Our topic? "What do you think historians will write about in a century?" Well it seemed simply enough. After about twenty minutes it came to me!

It is the year 2007. The War in Iraq has been going on since 2001 with the bombings of the twin towers and the pentagon. I knew everyone would write about it, yet none of the other reasons would be quite like this. At least I'd hoped.

In a century historians will write about the brave soldiers and talk about how they did their country well. However, they will also do as we all do now. We'll criticize and put shame on those soldiers who make it out alive. We will blame them for all of the problems that have arisen. Just as people did during the Vietnam War, and probably many other wars. Our grandchildren and their grandchildren will be put on trial for our mishaps. Our childrens children will be shunned for the actions of our nation. Yet, we still play it off as though we're doing the right thing? We're making our future generations pay for our mistakes. Earlier generations will probably be ashamed. Not because we're at war and fighting for everything we know and love, but because of the ways we're are accomplishing it all. So, in a hundred years the historians will be critisizing OUR choices. OUR mistakes. OUR lives. Will we end up like other great nations and fall? Look at Rome, they flourished for many many years, yet they fell in the same way we are beginning to. Corruption erupted within their government, greed took over many peoples lives, money began to mean more to people than love and faith. Rome was known as the great nation who tolerated an abundance of religions. So does the United States, or at least it seems that way. Everyday we see it, but do we notice. Religions being critised along with race and ethniticity. Such characteristics could have been found in mighty Rome, before its fall.

Just as I finished that last sentence the bell rang. Time for second period, but I quickly wrote down this " Are we really preparing the youth of our nation to be greater than us? Or are we just setting the only future we have up for more heartache, war, discrimination, segregation, greed, and hostility?"


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