Green Peace?

By Camille Lyon Posted October 1, 2008

Activism is becoming a new trend among the younger generations. Along with politics, religion, and any other sort of opinionated topic; teens are beginning to become more involved with society. There are various student programs to help endorse political candidates. Any teenager can go into a department store and find clothing endorsing controversial slogans, such as Go Green; Make Love, Not War; and Vote or Die. All of this involvement within the younger crowd is enlightening, but is it genuine?

Many teenagers have an opinionated outlook on world topics. Lowry’s National Honor Society hosted a “Go Green Week” to help influence the students to become eco-friendly. Many students wear eco-friendly slogan shirts, but when there was an actual event to promote what all of these students were supposedly endorsing already, there were only a few volunteers.

If going green is only a hip trend to make you seem cool, then what is all the hype about? If you buy these shirts that promote going green, do they help aid the actual organizations that are truly taking action? Or are the department stores only printing these phrases to catch teens’ attention and to make money? Promoting the cause is a good thing, but is peoples’ hearts really in it? Is it even the real green?

Another cause that is falsely promoted is having world peace. Many students promote having peace in Africa. I have always wondered if the people wearing these shirts can even identify the countries that need aid. Where does the source of the activism come from? Are students even watching the news to form an opinion? Where do they acquire their sources from? When students buy these green peace shirts are they looking at the labels to identify if the cotton is organic, is the material synthetic, or even wonder if the making of this shirt aids in energy conservation? I don’t think so.

Students only buy these things to seem opinionated and educated on a topic they really know nothing about. Buying the shirt is really not a solution to the problem. It only makes the manufacturer produce more shirts which contributes to energy consumption.

Knowledge is power and students should become active in the causes they are promoting. Instead of promoting a cause, they are promoting hypocrisy. Why label yourself an activist when you really know nothing about it at all? I promote learning about a cause and supporting it entirely.

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