Jake Kless

2nd Romo
10 November 2015
On Ignorance and Fear
Malcolm X has a quote; Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or
justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it. He was sort of the dark counterpart to Martin
Luther King Jr. Both fought for civil rights, both were spied on and threatened and attacked, and
in the end, both were killed for their activism. However, Malcolm X said things like if the ballot
doesnt work, the bullet will. He believed that if good old-fashioned American democracy
didnt work, if nonviolence meant that black people had to live in submission and fear, then
nonviolence was not the answer. Then the enemies of his movement would have to be convinced
not through speeches and marches but through fear and intimidation.
Was he right? Probably not. It was Dr. Kings philosophy of firm unities and law-abiding protest
that led to the Civil Rights Act and steps toward equality for black people in America. But
Malcolm X had a point. Apathy and reliance on others is a path that leads to failure. Every time.
There is an attitude that I see prominently and I see waved proud like a flag. Its summed up in
quotes. I dont read the news because the medias biased. I dont vote because politicians are all
corrupt. I dont care about politics because nobody ever gets anything done. These are positions
that teenagers, adults, seniors, whatever - are content with and think are a-okay.
And theyre not. Theyre excuses. Those who believe these things are not realists or
experienced or somehow more intelligent for their lack of energy. They are selfish and lazy
and ignorant and apathetic. There are serious issues facing us as a country, as a planet, as youth
even and its too difficult for half of us to open up a free app on our free iPads that we have with
us all the time and find out why exactly our district barely passed an override this week. That
directly affects all of us, and I guarantee without teacher intervention most wouldnt have any
idea where they should have stood on the issue.
Heres something; lets say me and Sarah in five years are both accountants. We work the same
hours at the same job for the same company. Theres a good chance Sarah gets paid something
like 75 cents for every dollar I get paid. Thats a statistical fact-on average women are paid less
than men for the same jobs. The military currently classifies climate change as a national security
threat. It can and will put lives in danger in the next few decades, yet we have leading
presidential candidates that deny it even exists. The Syrian refugee crisis is nothing compared to
whats coming. The USA has the highest child poverty rate of the entire first world. Gay people
literally had to pretend to be straight if they were in the military until five years ago. It is only
through politics and information-sharing that problems are solved. It was politics that ended the
Cold War. It was the media that brought down a corrupt President Nixon. It was a journalist that
brought to light the fact that the NSA had been collecting phone information from Americans on
a mass scale. Marie Curie said that nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Jake Kless
2nd Romo
10 November 2015
You cannot fear information. You cannot fear the truth. As Americans we have a moral
responsibility to do whatever we can to fight injustice, and part of that is to educate ourselves. A
newspaper is like fifty cents. You can literally get live updates from journalists on Twitter. There
are no excuses.