Talking About Your Generation

Where are you hippies?

Where are you flower children?

Where are you dreamers on the rise?

You were once the hope for future Generations. 

You were to leave this place better than you found it.

Now what have you done to it?

A generation which believed in peace love and understanding.

Now silence the voices of opposition with guns.

A generation tore down walls which divided us

Now stand by as new walls are built. 

You fought for freedom of speech. 

Now you try to silence those who tried to do the same.

When did you become so jaded?

When did you become so apathetic? 

When did you stop doing what is right?

When did you start doing what is easy and safe?

Your generation said you would teach your children well. 

But have you really? 

2 generations standby and watch as mass shootings become the norm.

You who shouted the phrase books not bombs.

You watch as our education system sinks deeper into the abyss. 

You call us apathetic. 

You tell us how in your day you changed the world for the better.

Why didn't you teach us? 

Where are you hippies?

Where are you flower children?

Where are you dreamers on the rise?

"Gender Neutral"

There has been much debate recently about the use of "gender neutral" terms. The debate to my understanding is using "gender neutral" terminology allows for more inclusivity. The idea I presume is "gender neutral" language will lead to more gender equality.
 As a college graduate with a BA in English, an  English teacher and writer, this question fascinates me. 
I have spent much of my adult life focusing on the use of language. In addition I have studied foreign languages throughout my life. Therefore I see several challenges in attempting to use "gender neutral" language.
In the languages I have studied including  French and Spanish there is no "gender neutral" language. Everything has a gender even inanimate objects.  For example a ticket in French is masculine "un billet" the toilet is feminine "la toilette." in some languages I'm told such as the Native American Choctaw language there is gender neutrality for objects but there is still gender differeciation for people. While in other languages such as Russian when a woman gets married she takes on the feminine form of her husband's last name, presumably to indicate that she is the wife (i.e. property) of her husband.

The idea of "gender neutral" language does not appear to take into account that language is fluid and not static. Four example, Shakespearean plays were written in what was during Elizabethan times  "the common man's English." Ask many high schoolers today who are "forced" to read Shakespeare as part of their English class curriculum and what was once considered to be a Common Language is now is foreign to many of them as dead Latin. By way of further illustration words  such as the use of the "n word" within the the African american community  or the word "queer" in the LGBTQ community  were once used to disparage members of those communities. Recently however, these words are  being reclaimed by many members (*disclaimer I said many not all) in order to empower themselves. 

 When many people attempt to use "gender neutral" terms they succeed for a phrase or two and then revert back to gendered terms. The focus then shifts away from the content of the subject matter. The subject matter shifts to the perception that even proponents of "gender neutral" language cannot maintain it for very long so how can they expect others to do it.
 Gender roles have blurred over the years causing issues of gender equality to come to the forefront. Recently the questions of gender roles and gender equality have become more complex with the LGBTQ... joining the conversation. However, gender equality is but one part of the larger issue of human equality. By focusing on the use of "gender neutral" language are we actually being deterred from the larger issue of human equality. Perhaps we should focus less on what we call each other and focus more on how we treat each other.