North Texas Daily

America has been facing political instability for many years and the situation will only escalate as we continue forward. As the next generation, we have some important decisions to make regarding how we are being governed and if the traditional systems are going to work for us anymore.

When looking back on various turning points in recent political history, such as the South Korean Kwangju Uprisings in the 1980s, the racially-fueled civil war in Rwanda in the early 1990s or even the Arab Spring uprisings in the past couple of years throughout the Middle East, it becomes apparent that political instability, racial tensions and deep-seated disagreements do not just go away.

A political revolution may seem like a far-fetched idea from our position of relative comfort in the modern United States, but change always begins somewhere and I believe we are way past the initial spark. The seed has already been planted, all it needs now is to be watered and cared for.

You may think good old America is nothing like those corrupt governments aforementioned, but I would argue we are pretty damn close.

Let’s review what the United States. has got going on: immigration camps with awful conditions at the border separating families, police shootings nearly every week, racial tensions between minorities and white people expressed in election results, prolonged investigations about foreign interference in our elections, a president who doesn’t denounce alt-right neo-Nazis and spews propaganda as fact, rampant gerrymandering influencing voting results all over the country, lawmakers on an NRA payroll while children are gunned down in school halls, a health care system that leaves thousands unable to receive the treatments they desperately need, a rising opioid epidemic that killed 72,000 people in 2017, a gender/race pay gap that continues to rise and an outrageous amount of debt that is piled onto young university students.

Does a revolution really sound that far-fetched?

But how can we make a difference? Well, there are examples throughout history:

The South Korean Kwangju Uprising in the 1980s saw nearly a quarter million people, a large chunk being university students, take to the streets in protest against the militaristic government. The protests were brutally repressed, but they were an essential step in the rise of a democratic government in South Korea.

There are large scale protests in recent American history as well, such as the Ferguson protests in 2014 and the 2017 Women’s March, which are both indications of the increasing irritation with the government and a strong desire for change. There was even a protest locally in Denton’s town square recently in relation to Jeff Sessions, the lead investigator in the Trump-Russia case, being forced to resign mid-investigation. The pot is getting hotter and might begin to bubble over soon.

In times of political instability, there will always be the ones who say nothing is wrong or that change isn’t needed. These are the people who benefit from the corrupt system or at least think they do, such as poor white people historically voting against poor minority voters despite being in the same economic class. These are the racists you see in pictures from civil rights era America with picket signs and angry sneers on their faces — the honorable police officer who can take a leave of absence after shooting an innocent person, a politician who pockets money from the NRA and turns off the news when another school shooting happens. The list goes on.

Frankly, I am tired of seeing a different school shooting every week, I am tired seeing GoFundMe links on Twitter for outrageous medical bills, I am tired of seeing my friends and classmates swamped in tens of thousands of dollars in debt for a degree that does not carry the same weight that it used to and being forced to work jobs far below their qualifications.

Change is desperately needed in America. A political revolution does not feel as outlandish as it once was, and should be considered as our generation begins taking positions of power throughout the country.

Featured Illustration: Austin Banzon