It has been said that our generation’s defining trait is indifference, and millennials know this critique all too well.

In a recent interview with Vice, President Barack Obama responded to viewer submitted questions. The last question in the interview touched on the legalization of marijuana, to which the president responded, “It shouldn’t be young people’s biggest priority. Let’s put it in perspective. Young people, I understand this is important to you. But you should be thinking about climate change, the economy, jobs. War and peace. Maybe way at the bottom you should be thinking about marijuana.”

Obama’s statement undermines and dismisses our generation’s intrigue and intentions. The lack of a proper political voice for millennials has a lot to do with older generations pushing aside our desires and dictating what we should care about. It is not that our generation does not care at all, but rather we care about different issues and voice them in politically incorrect ways.

To generalize that our generation prioritizes marijuana more than things like war or climate change is just inaccurate. A 2014 study conducted by Gallup found that about a third of all Americans have tried marijuana and the number of active users is even smaller. The same study also revealed that the number of people that have tried the drug has remained around the same since the ‘80s.

It is easy to say that millennials do not care because we do not vote. While the most recent midterm elections received the worst turnout in 72 years, it was across all demographics, according to The New York Times. But Obama won the youth vote in both of his presidential elections and about half of the young voters who were eligible to vote in those actually did.

A possible reason for the lack of voter turnout is the disconnect between millennials and the politicians who urge us to care about the same issues they do. Congress is not representative of our generation — one must be 25 years old to be a representative, 30 years old to be a senator and 35 to be president.

Obama asks us to think about the economy, jobs and war, yet these are issues we do think about and are actively involved in. Last year proved to be the year of protest, which has been a form of political action for other generations as well as our own.

Millennials brought increased awareness to issues on social media and have expressed our feelings about them with trends like #BringBackOurGirls and #BlackoutDay. It can be argued that these trends do not do much in terms of passing legislation, but it certainly proves that we have concerns and are paying attention.

It is not fair to criticize millennials for not constantly discussing a lot of the issues Obama raised. Just because we are not voting or asking Obama questions about his plan on moving forward with ISIS does not mean we don’t care about these issues. This is not to say that as a generation we do not have responsibilities — because we do. It is our responsibility to be kinder and smarter than the generations before us.

We have become the global generation, and for the most part, we are aware that the world is not perfect. Millennials are finding better ways to be involved in politics, and the government should listen to more of what we have to say.

Our voices say more than just legalize weed, they scream: listen to what we have to say.

Laritza Salazar is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at lcsalaza@syr.edu.

Published on March 23, 2015 at 11:58 pm