One thing young people from the Fourth World need to know is that they belong to a group that has always been treated unjustly and that they can do something to change this.
The solidarity Don Bosco has inspired in the hearts of young people is invaluable. We belong to a people, and we must free them from this injustice too. We belong to a family and are never excluded on our own, but with our friends, our family, and our milieu. We are working against being excluded, but in ways that also help our family and friends.
There is a trend in our society of promoting individual success, which always means having to fit into a different world to ours. The tragedy is that to do this we risk denying where we come from. Then we end up not belonging to the past and not yet being part of the future, because one way or another, we’re seen as upstarts.
But we’re not upstarts if we enter society as it is while staying true to the roots that nurture us.
This father, even if he drank too much, is still our father. This mother, even if she turned to prostitution to feed us, is still our mother. Our brothers and sisters, no matter how their lives have turned out, are still our brothers and sisters.
Neither can we deny experiences shared in institutions that have welcomed us warmly. To do this is to deny our roots, and without roots, no matter where we go, we will always be seen as upstarts.
We must hold tightly to our roots as those thought of as the most talented are dragged from their milieu but then are not helped to fit in anywhere. This leaves the poorest communities even weaker when the most dynamic get up and go.