I have found, throughout my colored college career, that it is possible to have two sorts of discussions with a group of my peers. Those that mean absolutely nothing, such as debates over the best- looking beer label or the most statuesque or grotesque professors, or the kind of discussion which leaves you pumped. Both of these are the fiber of college life, but while one means something, the other does not. Just last week, nestled comfortably among a group of proud loud-mouthed liberals at the M-Shop, I had one such pumping-up conversation.

We began simply talking about social activism among students. Many people of our generation grew up hearing stories from our parents about rallies and protests, and the virtual intoxication they received from participating in such events. They saw their world change within a few years by putting their voices together and speaking. With that many voices, no one person needed to yell.

All of us yucking it up that lonely Friday afternoon wondered, what the hell happened to all those voices? Where are the voices of our generation?

Arguably, times have changed. Our generation doesn’t have the unifying force of the Vietnam conflict. We don’t know how a war can bring people together. But on the flip side of the coin, we can also contest that our world is just as badly in need of social change as in those days. So … what’s the deal with all this silence?

Somewhere along the line, young people of our generation have been told that college is about the beer, the babes and the bachelors. Not so. I expected, upon reaching this university, to find a four-year-long party, absent from politics and politicking. Not so. A lot of us believe that college is a haze somewhere in between the sticky, uncomfortable reality of high school and the humdrum droll of the “real world.” Not so.

College is not just shootin’ and swingin’.

College is politics and politicking.

College is the real world.

So from where is it that these misperceptions come? And why is it that they are held by so many?

About five years ago, the entire country was bombarded and infiltrated with this notion of “Generation X.” They cloaked us, (and continue to) as the generation that defies explanation, that does not fit conveniently into any one category. They recognize that we are the most diverse generation to date in almost every imaginable realm: race, ethnicity, class, religion, sexual orientation and political affiliation. We became a big media-marketed issue simply because they could name us. If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention.

Oh, but it gets better, loves. They (the elusive and evasive powers that be) are sure of one thing, however — that our entire generation is lazy, individually self-serving, ungrateful, ill-motivated, thankless, selfish and poorly educated. Above all, they say, we are apathetic. I say, not so.

The one thing that glues our generation together is the notion of the formidable future that is facing each of us, regardless of who we may be individually. Our obstacles are these: We are the first generation in the history of the United States that will have a lower standard of living than our parents. Our money will buy less than theirs did, and for many of us that is far from a comforting thought. The job market is steadily becoming harder to penetrate, even within fields that are in high demand. It is estimated that, if things don’t change drastically and soon, the money the government now takes out of your meager wages for Social Security, might, and it’s a mighty might, cover our parents’ Social Security needs. The list is as long as a bad hangover.

But my original axe to grind was the serious lack of student activism here and at our brother and sister schools across the nation. It frightens and upsets me that the voice of our generation is so damn quiet. We’ve got problems enough to bitch about, but we’re buying their version of us as the apathetic, voiceless, opinionless Boomin’ Babies of the Baby Boomers. Why aren’t our voices booming also?

To be recognized and appreciated for what we really are, we must constantly speak out against the perceived and accepted myths. Speak up, loves, it’s not too hard. In fact, you’ll be surprised at the numbers that agree with you, and it could very well leave you pumped. After we find and claim our voices, then we can bring them together to bring about social change. In my humble opinion, and in the opinions of many, many others, it’s about that time.

This has been Bliss, and remember, I’m not that hard to find.

Bliss Newton is a junior in English literature and women’s studies from Ames.