Editor's Note: By giving donors complete creative control over gifts geared towards high-need K-12 students, The Generation Project hopes to facilitate personal connection between donors and the kids they are helping. As part of that effort, we are letting some of the students that we hope to affect to use this blog to write about their lives, their schools, and anything else they find interesting. Our hope is that, by posting kids' own words, we can give you, the donor, some insight into the interests and passions of the students you would be affecting with your gifts. To highlight the kids' own words, their posts are uncensored and unedited and represent the views of the kids and adolescents that authored them, NOT The Generation Project.
This post was written by Ivan Guzman, a 15-year-old from the Bronx. Read more about Ivan here:
If you don't live under a rock then you know that January 20, 2009 will be a very historic day for this country. It's the day Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. That's not the only historic part of it. Obama will be the first African American President in a country that about 40 years ago didn't allow African Americans to drink from the same water fountains as white people.
Although there is great excitement about this historic moment, I really couldn't care less. There's a good chance I'm in the minority of people who don't care much about the inauguration, but I want to see what Barack Obama is going to do after all the celebrating, the tears, and the inspirational speech. I want to see what Obama is going to do about the crappy health care system in this country (which due to its crappy state forced me to miss nearly a week of school because of the flu), I want to see what he's going to do about the cesspool we call an economy, and I want to see what he's going to do about the war in Iraq, and if he's going to get more involved in Afghanistan like he said during the campaign. It's like I've told everyone who listens to me: if he turns into Bill Clinton (without the sex scandals of course) I'll be happy. However, if he turns into Jimmy Carter this will all be for naught.
One thing about Obama that I'm excited about is how he's going to help my generation. When I first thought about how Obama can help my generation I had nothing, but that was because I had just finished watching Sean Hannity, and after I watch that show, I can think of nothing else except for taking a shower. When I really thought about it, I first thought of the simple things like restoring the economy so I can find a good job when I'm older, ending the Iraq war properly, and giving illegal immigrants a fair shot at staying in this country. Then I thought of difficult things like lowering college prices to an reasonable level or making it very close to free (my own common sense would not allow me to think of free colleges), finding every illegal immigrant in this country and making them a citizen, and finding Osama Bin Laden himself and killing him with his bare hands.
I think Obama can help my generation by doing the simple things that I said and fixing up the country real nice so a Republican can come and break it. The last thing I said might be a little harsh, but let's be honest, that's what most Republican Presidents do, and Sarah Palin is looming.