Our Children Deserve Better: A response to the 2016 election

It was you who decided that your children deserved better.

“They shouldn’t have to wear out their only pair of shoes or eat the same meal day after day after day. They should have the freedom to choose their own paths.” It was you who said, “Education is the key to the world.”

And so you placed books in front of us. With your patience, we learned how to read. Characters representing cultures, places, and stories that we had never experienced ourselves suddenly became our friends, and we learned from them.

Our teachers began to teach us more than just the facts of history – they taught us how to step into the shoes of soldiers and citizens alike. We began to realize that there is no true winner in war – just people who never took the time to listen and understand each other.

And now you’re upset that we are resisting some of the ideas that have always been in your nature. We do not see vulnerability as weakness. We actively work to tear down the masks of propaganda and closed-minded thinking. You don’t understand why we think so differently than you do.

But I think I see it now. I’m not mad at you. After all, you genuinely want the best for your children.

But you’re the ones who gave us the books.

So please try to understand – as difficult as it may be – that when we march together, this is our own way of telling you, “We have decided that our children deserve better.”

– Ania Dron Ray