2020 started off rather rocky with the growing tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with many people concerned that this could potentially blow up into an all out war later down the road. 

What are we going to do? How should we prepare? What’s going on? What can I do? With the ever present threat of fake news along with the constantly evolving internet culture, it’s hard to really know the answers to those questions. And fake news aside, there’s also the concern of propaganda, which is guaranteed to ramp up within the coming weeks if there’s an official declaration of war.

Since the 1960s, young people have proved again and again that they are the generation of change. Whether these changes are good or not is debatable, but something that can be agreed on is that they still did something, whether it was something that changed the systems that allows our country and society to function or simply leaving a mark on history. 

One of the strongest examples of this is the anti-war protests in response to the Vietnam War, where students were willing to risk their lives if it meant defending their fellow Americans and the innocent people affected by the war on the other side of the globe. Watergate had done nothing but fuel the fire, causing American citizens, especially young ones, that the government couldn’t be completely trusted, and that is capable of lies, corruption, and selfishness. 

Regardless of your political leaning, please educate yourselves. Seek out information from the most unbiased sources. AllSides is the perfect tool to use for this and form your own opinions. You can even go the full nine yards and look at sources from all political leanings if you feel it may help you in the process. 

Don’t take vague info from Twitter and run with it because it sounds like it could possibly be true; be smart about the information that is given to you. Politicians want us to be misinformed and uneducated so that we can remain politically apathetic, meaning they can rely on the older votes to keep them in power. They want us to encourage war and in the process further the political divide among our generation. As corny as it sounds, we’ve got to stick it to the man. We have to let them know that we’re the ones that will inherit this country when they pass, and that our voices matter too. 

War or no war, encourage peace instead of conflict no matter what it comes from. Don’t accept information that is fed to you at face value; look it up yourself and determine the real truth. This doesn’t make you a crazy conspiracist or anything like that, instead it’s preparing you for maturity. We’ve got the ability to think for ourselves and make our own decisions, so we ought to put it to use.