The Tyranny of False Virtues

Unknown

I am the youth of the land. I am told that fickle and playful, that I am soft and easygoing. I am accused of being naughty and proud and distrustful, of not having the right attitude. And since I do not have the right attitude, my leaders tell me they do not know where this country is headed for, that they wonder when it is left to me as my heritage, when it is willed to me as my own. I am the youth of the land. I do not stand before you to whitewash my errors. I admit that the accusations hurled against

me are in great part true. But in all justice, in all fairness, in all deference to truth, do not hold me entirely accountable for my failings, do not overburden me with the sins of the world, do not crucify me to a cross I do not fashion.

I maybe young, I maybe inexperienced but I am not blind. I can see the future with a certainty that I alone can feel, for I feel it my blood.

And I see my leaders, who have built a towering mansion of state on sand. And the sand shifts and the towering mansion fell. Not a pillar stands, for all is ruined. And wandering among the shambles in

that mass of ruins, I stumbled upon the monuments of upturned graves of my leaders. And my soul is black with resentment and I curse them with a hatred that only youth can possess, as I stare at the bleak sky and swear: may your memory be damned by my destiny! And the pictures comes vague, and more fearful in its certainty. And I am alone and helpless in my youth, and I reach forth for a hand to guide me. And that I ask is so little.

Give me leaders who shall devote themselves no longer to a privileged minority but to the cause of the underprivileged majority.

Give me leaders who shall lead lives fraught with hardships and sacrifices, who shall demand of themselves before they demand of me.

Give me leaders who shall have successors tempered in the crucible of merit.

Give me leaders and theirs is my mind to mould. Give me leaders and theirs is my blood to shed. Give me leaders and theirs is my will to command. Give me leaders and theirs is my destiny to shape. Give me leaders and I shall follow them to the end of the earth.