In Defense Of Dreamers And Millennials
I don’t think there is anything more infuriating than watching previous generations continually talk shit about millennials. These people scoffing at us privileged with established jobs, homes, mortgages and families. I am a 22-year-old college educated woman with my nose to the grind. I can only speak from experience, but I seriously do not know where the fuck the media is getting off by generalizing us as lazy, entitled, and/or ignorant.
I was lucky enough to find a job post-grad, and I am currently on the market for a second job. It’s tough when you are looking for part-time work in order to supplement getting your hours cut. I land interviews but as soon as I admit I do not have full availability (due to already working another job) employers look over me to find someone with “more flexibility”. I have an interview this saturday and I pray to goddess that I get it. If so, I will work two jobs plus freelance writing whenever possible.
I am applying for food stamps. I live in low income housing. Yet, I continue to get labeled as some ungrateful fuck in the media? No. The real issue is that the job market among a multitude of other factors, is not supporting my generation. Tell me, how is it fair that baby boomers paid a FRACTION of what my generation pays for education and unlike us, they were able to default if things fell through. Students nowadays are pretty much graduating with mortgages.
Back in the day, students had the option of defaulting on their loans until the 70s when a law was passed that prevented students from having this option. Students of today are fucked. If you work really hard in college and still can’t land a living wage, too bad. This is a false meritocracy at its finest. It amazes me that previous generations continually talk shit on us, but fails to see the handouts/deregulations that allowed them to get ahead in this country.
Right now, I work within the marijuana industry. It amazes me what older, more conservative generations are doing in order to stop legalization. Millennials have spoken and a majority of us want a legal marijuana industry, but the alcoholic generations before us are not going to let us have it easy. Currently in Oregon, House Bill 3460 passed which allows medical marijuana dispensaries to operate legally within our state. However, the backlash has already been received: Senate Bill 1531 would allow cities to ban dispensaries, ultimately rendering HB 3460 ineffective if cities have the right to stop them from establishing in the first place. Not only is this completely backwards because it’s giving all of this potential business back to the black market, but it eradicates patients being able to have safe access to medicine. This forces patients to participate in the black market.
In a piece run by the Huffington Post, the governor of Colorado says “I don’t think governors should be [in] the position of promoting things that are inherently not good for people.” Yet, this hypocrite made his money in the alcohol industry which is responsible thousands of deaths and addictions every single year. The irony. I just can’t.
I think it’s ridiculous that dispensaries have been operating in Oregon for years without any problems, are all of a sudden receiving this backlash now that we are trying to legitimize marijuana usage and break away from the black market. What kills me is that older generations are killing the innovation and dreams of the future that millennials are trying to achieve. I am not a criminal and neither are my co-workers, or the patients we serve on a daily basis.
The point is that millennials are trying to change the world. I have had enough with older generation’s sexism, homophobia (ala Arizona), racism, ableism, and list goes on. This is not to say our generation is perfect, but we do have a vision, an inclusive vision. I believe our generation is a generation of dreamers AND doers. And pot smokers. Call us lazy, entitled, or what have you without understanding us. We do not do things your way and probably never will.