
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 24, 1994                   TAG: 9405250006
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DISILLUSIONED CRISES ARE ALL WE'VE KNOWN

WHY BOTHER? A shrug and a look of disinterest have answered too many questions put to today's college students. Adults can't seem to understand why young people have trouble caring about political and social issues.

Yet, we do care. We care deeply about the dilemmas challenging our world: wars, gun violence, AIDS, drugs, racism, the environment, politics and humanity itself. We watch the news and read the papers, and see that the society around us appears to be falling apart.

We care, but many of us lack motivation for action. Disillusioned, we feel hopeless and powerless.

I asked a classmate about her view and she replied, "There are too many bad things out there and too little good. I have enough problems in my own life without worrying about the bigger picture just yet." Several others echoed her reply.

Maybe we are a selfish generation, but I have found that living as a young person in contemporary America is much harder than many older people realize. Too many of the social issues facing the nation can be found in our daily lives, adding on to our concerns about classes, jobs and friends.

I see several reasons for our lack of motivation. First, nothing is concrete anymore. We can't seem to trust anybody in authority. The leaders all appear to be out for themselves, saying a lot about nothing.

Also, we have seen efforts for change fail too many times. For some reason, good intentions can result in evil. It's a paradox: One solution cannot solve a problem. We have to compromise and, in the process, we create more problems.

A friend said it the best: "To grow up with a good childhood, with a happy family, and to be problem-free nowadays is abnormal. For those of us who are happy to fit in and feel normal, we have to make problems for ourselves."

Now, tired of dealing with the obstacles, all we want is to escape reality rather than to change it. It's not that we don't care, but perhaps that we have already accepted the world with its many defects. We would rather not live in a society of crises, yet we have known nothing else.

XIAOQING WANG

FRESHMAN

VIRGINIA TECH

by CNB