Millennials

     Millenials. I found this out about a few months ago that this is a group of people I am lumped into.   When I heard that I was indeed a part of this category, I cringed.  I didn't want to be a part of this group.  This grouping of people who are being labeled as not knowing nor caring about real life issues.  Millennials are often characterized as a group of people with their heads in the clouds, not knowing or caring about anything more than the environment.  A grouping of people who when one comes out as conservative, they are looked upon like they have five heads.  It's hard, really hard, to have come to terms with the fact that I am in this group because of all of the attention and negative press surrounding them.  I feel like it is a vastly misunderstood and reported group.  We're not the problem.
     Based on the references I saw on Google, a millennial is someone who "came to adulthood around the year 2000."  That's me alright, but let me tell you about the people who are my age.  We do care about the government because what they are doing affects our prospects, retirement options, and our ability to receive Social Security we've been paying into for half of our lives.  We care deeply about the power of the people, and that's why we vote.  Millennials are a group of people who work hard because we saw and were taught by our parents who wanted to ensure we became a well rounded individual.  Yes some, and I'd argue a good majority of the ones I know, have mostly conservative roots.  We believe in a higher power and know the importance of a strong military as we were old enough to understand the importance of 9-11 when it happened.  We're uncompromisingly patriotic and don't feel like we have to apologize for being a great nation. 
     Are most more environmentally aware?  Yes, recycling has now become more prominent in our lives, but we're not braggadocios and holier-than-thou about it.  Do we see gay marriage as a big deal?  I'd still say that is a 50-50 ratio in my humble opinion, but I think most would agree it is more accepted by our generation than our parents.  The prospect of war isn't something we enter into with reckless abandon, however, it is something that we do not take off the table immediately.  We're becoming more aware of where our food comes from and how it is processed.  Millennials as a whole I believe are much like our parents with a dusting of liberalism, and that is not at all a bad thing.  Each generation becomes different than their parents is one way or another.  It's evolving.  It's healthy.  My parents were much more liberal on certain issues than their parents.
     What is becoming a problem and should be focused more on than millennials are those kids that are in school/college now.  For me, these are the ones to watch and ones who need to be persuaded to leave the unicorn  rainbow valley of liberalism they have ventured down.  When I went to the Trump rally in Norfolk, VA this past weekend, I did not see many college kids, and that was a little surprising.  The kids in school now are the ones who are being taught that the US is a detriment to the world.  They are the ones who are being feed a shiny view of socialism.  This is the danger, not millenials.  We had parents who would have cut through that nonsense quickly out of the classroom but on our own we were smart enough to know how great our country was.  I am coining the phrase for those kids in school now the "Give me's".  Not that it is their fault entirely.  They don't see any path that gives them the light at the end of the tunnel their grandparents had for work, retirement, home ownership, or life's great prospects in general. 
     Millennials do have enough sense to see what this country has to offer.  We are a hard working bunch, so don't discount us.  Watch out for the ones still being feed by our outrageously liberal school systems.