By Aaron Duffy

Dear Teenspeak Readers --

The fact that you have decided to pick up this paper and read it, the fact that you are reading this letter, allows me to assume some things about you: you are hungry for information, you are concerned, you are scared, you are angry. I also assume, although I am aware that TeenSpeak has a variety of readers, that you are a teen. This letter is to the teens.

My name is Aaron Duffy. I am a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis and as a high school student I was a member of the Teenspeak staff. I made all of those assumptions above based on the way I, myself, feel. Unfortunately, I have not always felt this way. Not too long ago, I did not feel anything. Not too long ago, I bore the mark of our generation: Apathy.

By consciously picking up this paper, it is clear that you do not bear this mark, but the last thing I will assume about you is that you have friends who are apathetic to what is going on around them. Apathy is a serious problem.

Washington University has a conservative campus. There are roughly 6000 undergraduate students. Today, the day after President Bush declared war on Iraq, I participated in a 300 person peace rally. That is only five percent of the undergraduate school. Unfortunately, the main reason that there was such a small showing is that most people just don’t care. Or, maybe they cared at one point, but since the war has already started, they believe that there is no point in speaking out any longer. This is sad.

The one thing that I cannot assume is that you are against the war in Iraq, as I am. That is not important. The important thing is that there is a constant dialogue between opinions on both sides of the issue. On the front of every TeenSpeak it says, “Today for the leaders of tomorrow.” We are the leaders of tomorrow and if we have any foresight, we should be able to see that the future is not going to be an easy place to lead. If we remain apathetic, we will be even worse leaders than those that lead us today.

This letter is not about my opinions, though I would be glad to tell them to who ever would like to know them. This letter is about your responsibility. Be hungry for information, be tolerant, listen to every angle and most of all, do not be afraid to tell others your opinions. I failed to fulfill my responsibilities as a future leader in my four years of high school. Today, I realized my failure. But it is not too late to learn and it is not too late to show the world that we are ready to correct their mistakes.

This war could take months or it could take days. At this point I am not sure. But even if this war ends tomorrow, the world’s problems will be far from resolved. I am not a very political person, but I have opinions and I have concerns and I have ideas; and you do too. Express those ideas and build them. Get your friends to express themselves. Don’t let them hide under the shadows of apathy.

This is our world and right now, things are looking pretty grim to me. It is up to us to turn things around. I made the mistake of not caring about these things in high school and I hope that you can learn from that mistake.