Dear Millenials,

You may not realize this,
but I am not one of you.
You see,
You grew up in a world
Of decent T.V. Shows.
And you can remember a time
When everyone used flip phones.
Because the iPhone
is all I've ever known.

Another thing that separates us from you
Is that you may' even know people who fought
in Vietnam, Korea, and the Cold War too.
But most of you lived in a time of peace.

You can probably remember the day when
the twin towers fell.
9/11 2001.
You were probably at work
Or at home
Or eating a meal
Or in school
And you watched the World Trade Center crumble.

See,
We can't remember that.
We were too young.
Or weren't even born.
We've only ever known the world after.
We've only ever known the world where
you can't trust your neighbors.

But that's not our fault.

We've only ever know a world
that is dying.
It's been shoved in to a furnace
And been left to char.

But that's not our fault.

We've only ever know a world
that runs like a conveyor belt.
Everyone is the same perfect as the others,
Perfect skin,
Perfect body,
Perfect mind,
Perfect skill,
And those that aren't perfect
Are cast out.

But that's not our fault.

Now,
We understand that at the time
Declaring War on Terrorism seemed right.
And we understand that Global Warming
Isn't your direct fault.
And we know that you aren't the ones
Who came up with the conveyer belt lesson plan.
But,
You are still responsible.

You are responsible for the war
because it's been years since that decision was made
And so many problems have come from it
That the war itself may not even be worth it.
And you know it, so
Why let it continue?

You are responsible for Global Warming
Not because you set our house on fire
But because you've known about it for years now
And you've chosen to watch our home burn.

You are responsible for the conveyer belt
Because you helped power it.
You encourage it.
You feed it.
You could've stopped it.

You are responsible
Because you know
You can do something
And yet you don't.

You talk about rallying for change.
But instead of creating change
You are creating a nuisance.

Stop creating trouble
Start creating a better world.

I am not one of you
Because I've only ever known a broken world.
A world you could be working to fix
Instead of complaining about how broken it is.

I am not one of you
Because I cannot fix this world.
Not yet.
No one will listen to a child.
Not even if they're right.

-Sincerely The Z-Gen