Samantha's essay also wins the Damascus Award for most moxie--an additional $100! Congratulations and well done, Samantha!
I do not live in the "land of the free"; I live in the land of lies, betrayal, and imprisonment for the under-eighteen. The Declaration of Independence states "--that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness." I guess Jefferson forgot to put in " if you are eighteen or older" because otherwise the state would not be infringing on my rights! Yeah, right! I can trust statist bureaucrats as far as I can throw them.
The state did not produce, nurture nor support me, yet they claim that I owe them something. I am not their property; I am not a piece of collateral for their debts; I am not theirs to take from my parents or draft into their pointless wars. Don't get me wrong my parents donıt own me either, my life is my life!
I am treated like an animal owned by the state. Apparently I am too dumb, young, immature, and naive to be trusted with rights as though I was an eighteen-year old. So when I get to my eighteenth birthday, do I develop all this maturity and wisdom in the blink of an eye? It sounds a little too much like science-fiction. The truth is, each individual person develops maturity at a different pace.
When this country was first established, a fourteen-year old was considered an adult; today it is eighteen. A fourteen year old can be as psychologically and physically mature as an eighteen-year old sometimes more than an eighteen year old. I personally think I can handle the responsibility of being an adult, yet the state interferes with my pursuit of happiness.
State-run schools indoctrinate us into thinking that the state doesn't lie; that its purpose is to protect me. From what? What I need is someone to protect me from the state! They put us into wars to die for a country that lies and kills its own citizens. Their purpose is not to settle disputes, and thus keep the peace, but to get more power and money from the people it is "protecting".
Where was the "protection" at Waco? Oh, that's right, the FBI and BATF were there protecting us by shooting and burning children and their parents. If some among the adults did something wrong, why gas, burn, and even shoot the children for their parentıs actions?
In Wisconsin, where I live, the politicians made a wonderful new restriction: the Probationary License. The license laws for the under-eighteen weren't bad enough, the "adults" had to make it even more strict. I now have to wait six months after getting my temporary permit and drive eight hours with an instructor, forty hours with my parents, and go through pointless hours of virtual driving in order to get my probationary license.
Now get this: This probationary license, when I get it, requires that I can only have one person in the car with me; drive only during certain hours; and have many more pointless restrictions. When someone is eighteen or older they almost immediately get their license. Why would it matter if I were a mature 15 instead of an immature 18? Do my vision and reasoning dramatically change? The probationary license is one of the many ways the politicians acts as if they own us and thus have an owner's right to control us.
I am continually controlled by politicians as to whether I can smoke, not go to school, have sex, marry, move away from my parents, vote, gamble -- the list goes on. How is this constitutionally right? Does the Bill of Rights protect only the rights of people 18 or older? I am catagorized as a second class citizen by my age, but I will not sanction this: I have rights, and I will not be their property!
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