We See, We Fear, We Remember: We The Children.

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Dear ICE, MAGA, and truly any adult willing to listen.

I’m turning 13 this year, and I’m horrified that someone I love, or I, might die. I’m in the 7th grade. I’m sure when you were my age, you weren’t worrying about your friends being kidnapped, or cities and schools being bombed, or your friends being killed because people are refusing to respect rights and are truly, excuse me, self-serving assholes.

I have to memorize the Bill of Rights in my school. We go through each amendment and recite it from memory in front of the class. Having memorized these rights, I, as a child, know damn well what is happening isn’t right. I am horrified my rights might be taken away before I’m even able to get to college.

I remind my family about the midterms so that we can get the big orange in the sky (Trump) out of office, but truly, I don’t think it will work, because Trump has admitted to rigging the first election in the first place. I’m scared. For the children like me whose parents have been killed, injured, or taken away, never to be seen again. I’m appalled at the adults who let this happen and wanted this to happen.

I’m disappointed in the people who don’t educate themselves and then say it’s okay, like they don’t carry a device that has information on everything they desire. If you have a phone, it’s negligence, not ignorance. If you wanted to change or learn things, you would. But you don’t, so you are subjecting children to a life of potential hell because you decided taking the time to read was too much of a hassle, because the price of eggs is more important than people being murdered.

Children shouldn’t need to worry about ICE storming the school. Matter of fact, let me ask you this: why should children have to worry about anyone coming to their school with malicious intent in the first place? Why should girls and boys have to worry about their laws and freedom of speech and expression being taken away? Why should other people get to decide what other people can and cannot do when it’s not affecting anyone else negatively?

Now let’s go over each right and examine what the current government, ICE, and MAGA have impeached.

Now let us examine the rights that are meant to protect every person in this country, especially children, and why so many of us feel they are being threatened.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, religion, the press, assembly, and petition. Yet today, students are afraid to speak openly about their identities, their families, or their beliefs without fear of punishment or harassment. Books are being removed from schools. Teachers are being restricted in what they are allowed to teach. Peaceful protest is increasingly treated as criminal behavior. When people in power decide which ideas are “acceptable,” free speech no longer exists equally.

The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. However, many immigrant families live in constant fear of being detained without warning. Children should not have to worry about coming home from school to find their parents gone. Even if someone believes in immigration laws, there is no justification for creating an environment where children live in fear of sudden separation and loss.

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee due process and equal protection under the law. Yet enforcement often appears selective, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. When laws are applied harshly to some and leniently to others, justice becomes unequal. Equality under the law is not optional. It is the foundation of democracy.

The Ninth Amendment acknowledges that people have rights beyond those explicitly listed in the Constitution. This includes bodily autonomy, privacy, and personal freedom. Increasing government involvement in private medical decisions and personal identity directly contradicts this principle. A government that claims freedom while controlling people’s bodies is not protecting liberty.

The Tenth Amendment reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to the states and the people. Yet this amendment is often selectively cited only when convenient. States’ rights should not be used as a shield to justify policies that harm children or strip individuals of fundamental freedoms.

What is most painful is that children are watching all of this happen. We are learning the Constitution in school while seeing it ignored in real life. We are taught that America stands for freedom, yet we are growing up afraid. Afraid of violence. Afraid of separation. Afraid that our future is being decided by adults who refuse to listen, learn, or care.

Children should not be collateral damage in political power struggles. We should not be sacrificing human dignity for economic talking points or political loyalty. Disagreeing is part of democracy. Dehumanizing people is not.

I am not asking for perfection. I am asking for responsibility. I am asking adults to educate themselves, to vote with empathy, and to remember that their decisions shape the lives of children who had no say in creating this world but will be forced to live in it.

History will remember who spoke up and who stayed silent. And some of us are still children, yet we are already being forced to beg for the right to feel safe.

Now I am well taken care of. I’m an African American female who has not experienced many hardships or problems. I live in a nice neighborhood in Texas, untouched by gang violence or gunshots or anything of the sort, but anyone with human empathy sees that what is happening is not okay.

It makes me question why people idolize America or even say it’s “the greatest country,” because at this point, it’s no longer patriotism but indoctrination. A child shouldn’t have to worry if their teachers will protect them or rat them out if armed people bang on the school doors.

Because I may not have all the details, because I am just a 7th grader, but I know enough to say we are digressing into 1930s Germany. And if we want this to change, posting on the internet won’t be enough. Peaceful protests aren’t enough. Glitter bombs aren’t enough. To kill a plant, you must cut the limbs and root so it can’t propagate, and then fucking burn it. Dry out the soil and leave it to die (take that how you want).

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No,w let’s go over what Trump has put into play so the poor or minorities can’t advance or succeed in life.

First, voting. Voter suppression has been a huge one. Strict voter ID laws, purging voter rolls, limiting early voting, and closing polling places in minority-heavy areas all work together to make it harder for certain people to vote. When you block people from voting, you don’t need to convince them you’re right. You just make sure their voices don’t count.

Then there’s immigration policy. Family separation, mass detention, and aggressive ICE enforcement didn’t make the country safer. They made it crueler. Children in cages wasn’t an exaggeration; it happened. People were detained without knowing when or if they’d see their families again. That doesn’t protect borders. It traumatizes kids and destabilizes entire communities.

Healthcare is another one. Attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act would have stripped millions of people, especially low-income families and minorities, of healthcare access. People act like healthcare is a luxury instead of something you need to survive. When medical care becomes political, poor people die first.

Education policies under Trump also pushed inequality. Slashing public education funding while promoting private and charter schools widens the gap between rich kids and poor kids. And banning discussions about racism, history, and identity doesn’t protect students. It just makes sure kids grow up uninformed and easier to manipulate.

Economic policies favored the wealthy. The Trump tax cuts overwhelmingly benefited corporations and rich individuals, while wages stayed stagnant and prices went up. Poor people were blamed for struggling in an economy designed to squeeze them. That isn’t failure. That’s design.

And the courts. The judges Trump appointed will shape the country for decades. They affect abortion rights, voting rights, workers’ rights, LGBTQ+ protections, and civil rights cases. These decisions won’t hit politicians. They’ll hit regular people, especially those already on the edge.

What makes all of this worse is the gaslighting. Being told this is “freedom.” Being told this is “normal.” Being told we’re exaggerating while watching rights slowly shrink. Being told to calm down while people lose healthcare, safety, and autonomy.

I might be young, but I’m not blind. And neither are the kids around me. We see patterns. We see who benefits. We see who gets hurt. And we see adults choosing comfort over conscience again and again.

I’m tired of it. I’m so fucking tired of it. Child and adolescent depression has skyrocketed over the last twenty years, and instead of expanding mental health support, politicians have decided to police it. Schools are increasingly restricted from helping students without parental or guardian consent. On paper, that sounds responsible. In reality, it ignores a brutal truth: for some kids, home is the problem. For some kids, the parent is the danger. For some kids, school is the only place they feel even remotely safe.

So what happens when that lifeline is cut?

At the same time, the man being defended as a symbol of morality, strength, and “family values” has a documented record that directly contradicts everything his supporters claim to care about. Not rumors. Not TikTok conspiracies. Court records.

Donald Trump has been criminally convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York State. He has been criminally charged in multiple other cases, including federal charges related to retaining classified national defense documents and obstructing justice, federal charges for attempting to overturn the 2020 election and obstruct the democratic process, and state felony charges in Georgia under racketeering laws for election interference. These are not opinions. These are facts.

In civil court, a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll case. That is not an allegation. That is a legal finding by a jury.

On top of that, more than two dozen women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct over several decades. Accusations alone are not convictions, but pretending that this pattern doesn’t matter is intellectual dishonesty. When people say “there’s no proof,” what they really mean is “I don’t want to look at it.”

And this is who children are being told to trust. This is who adults are defending while claiming they care about protecting kids. This is who they rally behind while telling us to calm down, to stop being dramatic, to stop paying attention.

So when kids are anxious, depressed, angry, and afraid, it’s not because we’re fragile. It’s because we’re watching adults excuse corruption, criminal behavior, and cruelty as long as it benefits them. We’re watching people defend power instead of people. We’re watching empathy get labeled as weakness.

And here’s the part no one wants to say out loud: children are not broken. We are reacting normally to a deeply wrong environment. You cannot raise kids in fear, instability, and hypocrisy and then act surprised when their mental health collapses. You cannot strip away safety, honesty, and support and then blame children for struggling.

We are not confused. We are not indoctrinated. We are paying attention.

And if the adults in charge refuse to protect us, refuse to listen to us, and refuse to take responsibility, then the least they can do is stop pretending they don’t understand why we’re hurting.

Because we do. And yet we can’t do anything because “you’re just kids. You’ll get it when you’re older.” I don’t have to get older to see racism and blatant discrimination.

We see them taken…We hear the lies…And the hammer strikes — maybe for me next.

Signed,
The Adolescents of America