Reading. Books. Even if the two are generally frowned

upon in our day and age, they shouldn’t be. Books are

the things that raised our nation. John Adams, Thomas

Jefferson, John Hancock, and countless others used books, or

rather, the knowledge they gained by reading the classics in

history, philosophy, and literature, to create the Declaration

of Independence and the Constitution. The best books have

influenced the organization of a government that protects

our freedom and rights here in America. So how can these

classical books not be important? And just because those

people and those events are past and gone now, doesn’t mean

that books have become any less important. In fact, we

young people need to keep up the great tradition of reading

the classics to become educated and well-versed in the world,

so that we can better fulfill our future leadership roles.

Why would becoming educated and well-versed in the

world be important? Think of it like this: we are the future.

We are the people who are going to be running this country.

We are the people who will be teaching in our schools, who

will be running our businesses, who will be our congressmen.

We are the future. If we want to be successful leaders in the

future, we must learn from the past. We can’t just expect

things to come to us naturally. We are the future. We have to

learn; we have to prepare. How are we going to do that?

READ THE CLASSICS! And while the Internet is very

useful (that cannot be denied), it doesn’t always present hard

facts. Websites and blogs are created every day, and those

are full of information, and a lot of biased opinion. The

Internet is designed for short articles, bursts of information,

short blogs and opinion pieces, and 60-second video clips.

Whereas books, and the classics specifically, exercise a

person’s ability to read, write, and comprehend; they require

focus and sustained effort, and an attention span longer

than it takes to read, “OMG.” Of course, not all books are

equal: Goosebumps is not Jane Eyre, or Plato’s Republic, or

The History of Herodotus. “In order to form a more perfect

union,” and understand and maintain our rights, we must

become truly educated. Books are the best way of doing that.

If you’ve already read plenty of books and are thinking,

“I already do all that, isn’t that good enough?” I thank you.

Our posterity thanks you. But, your “good enough” isn’t

good enough. You have to be the very best you can be. This

means that you must keep reading, and encourage others to

read. If you have and do, again, I thank you.

We are the future. We must become the future leaders

that our founding fathers would be proud of. Let us become

educated, let us explore behind the cover of those classics that

began our great country. Don’t just let them sit on the shelf,

gathering dust. READ. We are the future.