Letter to the Next Generation

This has been my favorite essay to write this semester so I thought I would share it. I wrote it for my Government class. We read Ta-Nehesi Coate's memoir Between the World and Me. Thanks for reading!

Final Exam Essay

            Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir Between the World and Me is reminiscent of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, which also took the form of an extended letter to a relative. Write an essay in which you also describe the world we live in for a future generation. Describe the political events that were taking place during our time and what kind of world they will inherit.

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To you,

I live in a violent world that scares me and at the same time I live in a progressive world that gives me hope. My parents view and my own view on events taking place in the world is very different, much like I’m sure mine and yours will be. I was born and raised in one of the largest cities in the nation. I always lock my door and even though I have lived in the same house my whole life, I don’t know my neighbors. My parents grew up in small towns and were free to roam around the neighborhood growing up. The world changes, and I am okay with that, because you can always find good in the world. But sometimes the bad is overwhelming.

It’s hard to convey my experience with the world I live in when I am still a living piece of the world. I suppose this might make me a primary source one day. Writing this I understand the significance in having a first-hand account. You could read a text-book about the year 2015 written fifty years from now, or you could read what a seventeen year old has to say about what she sees every time she turns on the news, reads a magazine or logs onto Facebook.

It’s coming to the end of 2015 and there have been hundreds of shootings, leaving thousands of people devastated. Not until losing my brother did I really understand what loss feels like. My generation is desensitized, we see shootings on TV and in movies. We hear violence in songs and popular culture teaches us that it’s okay to beat your wife. People bleach their skin, cut their body, and shift their features all to fit the mold. I am realizing that this is a very sad world to live in, and it seems as though there has only been heartbreak. But there is so much good if you look for it.

There are a lot of people that are not violent, and a lot of people that have not been effected by terrorism, shootings, prostitution, or any other kind of violence. But when such terrible things happen, it really doesn’t matter who had a good day. I feel as though so many terrible shootings have happened that they cannot all end up being in the textbooks one day. These mass shootings which have been an important part of forming my opinion of the world will have as much meaning to you as 9/11 has had to me and my peers. The attacks of September 11, 2001 were devastating, but as a 2 year old at the time it all seems as far away as the war in Afghanistan. I meet those who survived and I hear about the ones who didn’t, but I was not a part of it. I suppose one day you will mourn one of the shootings, whichever one seems most devastating in twenty years. Maybe you’ll have holiday in remembrance of everyone who lost their lives to mass shootings. You’ll sit around a TV once a year and watch whatever new documentary is coming on 20/20. You’ll be just as desensitized as my generation.

My mom once told me about when her house was broken into. She was alone, coming home from school and found the house ransacked. For a long time after that had little trust for her community and even the law enforcement. And she was scared. That’s what my parents felt after 9/11. But for me to feel that way about the violence happening today, I would have had to have at some point trusted the people put in place to protect me. I grew up, knowing what terrorism was, I knew the threat, but my parents did not when they were young. As I have gotten older, new threats have arrived and become more persistent.

The world that I am giving you is not the ideal life, but there is beauty to be found here. On thanksgiving I still go to my uncle’s house and eat way too much. Yesterday I was able to use incredible technology to FaceTime my big sister away at college. There is a lot of good in the world and there is still hope for us. My hope is that enough people see the problem and create effective change. My hope is that enough people can dream. Everyone keeps saying to remember. Remember the old days, when we didn’t lock our doors, when we didn’t have terrorism or so much hatred. But I say dream, because I don’t remember that time. I don’t remember a time that people trusted each other, but I can dream of one. I know that you can too. Legislation doesn’t create change, terrorism does not create change, violence does not create change. People create change.

                                                                                                Delaney Yarbrough, 17