Speech

Not really a story, not sure where to put it. It is a speech i wrote. A girl fed up with the gulltony of America.

 

'Ok, before I start this, I want you to close your eyes, no peeking, then you won't get the full effect. Close you eyes, and think of a place, stripped bare. No electronics, as hard as that may seem to you, no t.v's, no ps2, gameboys, computers. Can you see it? Is that place bare looking? Is it a place you would willingly live in? Ok, think of yourself driving down the road. And as you look out the window, strip that road bare. No fast food restaurants, no restaurants period, no dividers, no paved streets, now no car. If you had to get to another town, traveling on this road, would you do it willingly? Ok, you can open your eyes now. Look around. Tell me, would you live in a world like this? Without the luxuries that we indulge in to the point where they aren't luxuries to us anymore. We feel as though they are owed to us.
Ok, one more time, close your eyes. Hold your hands out in front of you, palms up. Now imagine that you are holding a plate. Fill it up with as much food as you can think of. can you taste all those foods? Now imagine they are all loaves of dry stale bread. Would you want to eat them? Over what you just were thinking of? Ok, now imagine your hands empty. Imagine yourself hungry, starving in fact. tell me the first food that comes to mind.
If it isn't a loaf of bread, then you are spoiled. Open your eyes.

You are spoiled.

This country is the richest out there, yet we have people starving to death daily. Our country is so rich; we pay each other to serve us food. The amount of food in this country, out weighs the population by a half. If you lived in a third world country, you would do anything for one loaf of bread, or a thin blanket, or sometimes a place to even sleep for the night with out being exposed to the elements.

 

I stand before you today, not just to tell you, or even show, but make you live it.
No, there is no need to answer these, just roll with me here.

Have you ever gone to school, complaining about the amount of homework you have, or the tests, or even of a social problem, that you wished you were still in bed at home?
Have you ever gone to a restaurant and asked to change something because you didn't like the taste of it? I bet we all have. Look around guys and girls. Welcome to the richest country, and you live in it. You are obtaining this education for free. And I’m sure at least a quarter of you will waste it, either on drugs, gambling, or some other pointless thing. If i had it my way, I would tell anyone who doesn't want to be here, to go home, and don't come back. I’ll give your education to somebody who wants it. Someone who will work for it, and will make the grade, someone who needs it. News flash, not everyone gets it, whether they want it or not. They work ungodly, long hours, striving to bring home a few cents a day. At this age now, some of you are /just/ getting /part time/ jobs. by now a kid our age, in some other country, could have been working for fourteen hours a day since they were four. Put your self in their shoes! Can you imagine yourself there!? Or would you say, 'we have child labor laws; we have to go to school. this is insane, who the hell does this?' guess what, there are people like that, who work like that, they insure their survival for another couple of days by bringing home a meager earning. Some of us now aren't even helping out with expenses at home. We selfishly continue to spend our parents’ money without a second thought. Welcome to the 21st century.

What would you think if you didn't know when your next meal was, or where you were getting it?
You wouldn't. You would think that, oh there is a fast food place just down the road. Some where a girl is digging roots up out of the ground to eat raw for dinner.

Somewhere, miles and miles and miles away, a boy hasn't eaten in so long, that if he was fed now, he wouldn’t be able to swallow, or even keep the food down. He hasn't eaten in so long, eating now would kill him. Picture it, his small frame, a frail skeleton of what it should be, lying curled up in the corner of some broken down building, so dilapidated is this building that no one would dare venture in, leaving him all alone as he slowly dies. His body finally rejecting the will to live. Picture it now, no one even knows he's gone. They never even knew he existed. He never did. Some useless whelp of a human couldn't even spare a ration of food, or they see themselves so high up on this social change, that other then being a useless worker, he is just wasting oxygen, and time. Put yourself in his shoes!

We are the wealthiest nation, and yet we do nothing. we are the land of the free, home of the pride. Pride of what? Pride that we can take care of our own? Well guess what! We can't even do that. This is your nation. This is your home. This is your future. Stand the hell up and do something! No, I’m not saying become a world known hero, cure AIDS, and win the noble peace prize, or impact humanity in some remarkably fantastic way. Just /do/ something. You are the generation that will make the difference, so stand up and do something. show the world that America hasn't wasted it's efforts on a bunch of lazy, no good spoiled brats. Show the world; what we can be, and show the world, we're ready. Ready too help, ready to pitch in, pull our own weight. We’re ready; we just need to stand up.
Stand up America, stand up, and show that we are something to be proud of. ‘All is fine in war and love, but human salvation will create a greater peace.'

Author's Note

Again, sorry for errors, to lazy to find the final copy of this. Thank you for reading!

Reviews

[DrumMajorPod]

I agree with your sentiment that America has become a spoiled country. We expect foods and services and material things to be given to us. However, most of these "spoiled" civilians are not even aware that they are spoiled. Tell me.. and I know you can see this situation from this angle.. it is difficult to imagine the situations you speak of. Because we have been here for so long, and have had things in the present condition for years, it is difficult for us to imagine the fact that there could be another world out there. A hurt, starving world.

I do, however, disagree with the sentiment that education is free. In this country, you will, more than likely, have a less than desirable job if you do not go to college. However, being a senior in high school, and graduating in a couple weeks, I have realized exactly HOW expensive college is. It's insanely expensive. More expensive than I ever would have thought it could be.

America hasn't wasted the effort; people have wasted the opportunity. We are still a land of opportunity. It doesn't seem so right now, but.. meh. I think about this every day. In fact, I did a report for my English class recently about the general decline of intelligence in American society.

I could post my essay, but I highly doubt anyone would honestly want to read it.

Anyway, back to you.

Personally.. I still think this country is a good one. The government is corrupt. Our educational system sucks. But things like that can still be fixed.. if only more people realized they were broken. So many people are under the impression that this country is "perfect" and all that jazz. And as much as I love this country, I must disagree.

Sorry for rambling. Excellent work!