You say you want a revolution?Well you better get out of that armchair and make something happen. Change is not just something we will find between seat cushions. It is something my generation, Generation Y, needs to make.I am not saying we do not have the capacity for change, or the bringing about of change. The problem is this: either we do not care enough, or we do but are too lazy to do anything about it.Now I know what you are thinking – what about all the protests on campus last semester? I am not sure if you noticed or not, but there were more people waiting to get a parking spot than there were protesting.Sacramento State has a population of roughly 29,000 students. How could our administration or the government take our protests seriously? We cannot even muster a tenth of that to show up and fight to say no to fee hikes, ridiculously high prices for textbooks, and furloughs.They won’t take it seriously.If we want change for everyone, everyone has to participate. In 1968 in East Los Angeles, a group of Chicano students fought for something else; they fought for equal rights and an equal education. When they weren’t taken seriously, 20,000 students took to the streets and fought for their rights. This is not the same fight, but we are the same people. We are students who demand a good education and the opportunity to actually receive it.We will not see it though. We will not see change because we are not desperate enough to force it to happen. We have convenient excuses like, “It’s more expensive at UCs and private schools,” or, “My parents pay my tuition so what do I care?”Well you should care. Even if it does not affect you right now, it will eventually.The more we let our tuition go up without a real fight, the more our administration will raise it. In the last nine years our tuition has more than doubled; who’s to say it won’t keep rising? Sure your parents can pay for you now, but will you be able to pay for your kids?Associated Students Inc., President Roberto C. Torres agrees that this is the time to take a stand.”We need to fight, not just for ourselves but for our future,” he said. “Change is slow, just like investing in our higher education is investing in California, it is investing in us. When we are older, if we leave behind a good system it will benefit us in the long run.”The instant gratification-obsessed people of my generation have a problem. We have been spoiled. I grew up in the 1990s and 2000s.I have lived in some of the most economically wealthy times in our country. I have never experienced what it was like to be at war with another country, aside from all of the global policing our government practices.I could not really ask for more. In fact, I would say the most difficult thing my generation has been through was the World Trade Center attack, and even then I think it only really affected you if you knew someone involved.My generation has it good; we do not know how to fight for ourselves because we have never had to.Well the honeymoon is over, the veil has been lifted and we are now seeing how ugly the world can be. And we need to be ugly right back. We are in one of the worst economic recessions in the history of our country, and to fix the problem the government is taking money from our schools.This is the time we need to fight back. This is the time we need to rise as one and say no. We need to make our voices be heard and let the people in charge know we’re not going to take it anymore. Yeah I want a revolution, but I hope I am not the only one.

Matt Rascher can be contacted at [email protected]