Those words were whispered to me by the brilliantly kinetic, auburn-haired teenage daughter of Cathy and Walter Isaacson as we listened to a presentation given by members of the New Orleans community on the aftermath of Katrina.
This magical young woman is exposed to a wide range of issues, because her father, as the CEO of the Aspen Institute, is knee deep in the challenges of our world. My little friend, an only child, is as genially comfortable in the company of world leaders as she is with her peers. Her revelations on the harsh realities of life may have come sooner than to most her age, but others of her generation are not far behind in their enlightenment.
My generation had a flower as its logo -- today's symbol is a skull. A mosquito buzzing around the room is no longer the bearer of an inconvenient bite, but a potential West Nile virus. The summer floods in the Northeast are not just a heavy rainstorm, but a deluge of rising seas in the climate change doomsday scenario.
My generation experienced casual sex with abandon; the stakes are far too high for that now. She and her friends can't even experience the freedom of exploring the city without adult supervision and a litany of fears programmed into their heads about evil people who wait "out there" to hurt them.
The search for role models in the contemporary media is practically impossible, as the so-called leaders of their generation are driving fast cars, taking drugs and going to rehab or jail. When the media isn't concentrating on those little idiots, it's filled with pictures of warring nations, and bombs and maiming on a daily basis in the Middle East. Images of starvation around the world are pervasive. Terrorism abounds. Our culture lies to us, our leaders lie -- and it seems that nearly everyone gets away with it. Our shame is the embarrassment of illiteracy and abject poverty within our own borders, the horrors of Katrina and the sanctioned neglect of inner cities.
We neglected to secure Social Security for the future, and have left the medical establishment in a shambles. We allowed our reputation to go from the greatest country on earth to pariah. We allowed the deficit to balloon out of control, and raped the environment to the point where many believe that these teenagers won't have a future to fear -- but no future at all. Even our food supply is corrupted by compromised packaged goods. The biggest failure of all is that we neglected to prepare this generation through education on the harsh realities of their future.
Shame on us. We can't allow our children to inherit our world without doing more and trying harder to correct our wrongs. This is the first generation I know that doesn't embrace a future more golden than that of the previous generation.
Not all of us can do a great deal about the problems in our world, but we can do something. And doing something has a social value beyond the act itself. Recycle, conserve energy, work in your local school district. Support candidates who will make change in your city and country, and give what you can to those who are less fortunate. Spend time with the generation that is going to inherit the earth -- and instill the hope in them that their parents took for granted.
It's not over yet, but complacency will not do; it got us into the mess we're in today. Don't give in, and don't give up, start the movement.
Follow Lynda Resnick on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lyndaresnick
A colleague forwarded your post on to me, and all I can say to that is this:
One, two, whatever you do,
Start it well, and carry it through.
Try, Try, NEVER say die,
things will come right, you know, by and by.
I took a job in April with the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, New York and New Jersey's landmark partnership which created the magnificent parks network in the shadow of New York City. With such a fountain of firsts (first section of the Appalachian Trail, first group camps, Boy Scouts of America started here, etc.,) one would think that we've got a legacy that will keep us going ad infinitum. But our parks are in grave need, our infrastructure is crumbling, and our resources are tapped, much like anywhere else in the country.
But we have enthusiasm awakening in the hearts and muscles of the public. And it's only through the telling and retelling and the re-retelling of this story that the awakening is happening. And it's the kids that are leading the charge, because they're starting to see the connection between our heritage and the one that they're creating. It's a beautiful time, in spite of the environmental and political challenges which hang over our heads. I should like to think that this same awakening can and will happen around the country. I see signs everywhere. We must try, try...
except the filthy rich. And have they ever been as f-i-l-t-h-y!!
When Ronald Reagan was elected
Perhaps a more descriptive appellation might be: multinational corporation controlled consumption center for other countries' products
Just don't call it the USA any longer.
Still, I believe that this CC's death sentence might be deferred a little longer if we all just recognized that DENNIS KUCINICH is the only candidate from either major party that makes any f*cking sense at all!
And in ten years that mosquito may be bringing us malaria.
There's a conflict for the new century.
Illegal business practices worldwide in order to wide out deadly disease.
They gutted the regulations, gave corporations free rein to outsource all the decent jobs, almost killed the alternative energy development research, allowed the polluters to pollute, started bringing in all kinds of products from countries that have no human rights or pollution laws, started wars where there was no reason to do so ... I could go on and on with the things these evil, sadistic, selfish mentally ill people have done, all in the name of God and profit.
And I am left with one conclusion . . .
The people who have seized control are the ones that couldn't partcipate when love was "free". They were surpressed by tradition, never having the balls to question authority. Now, their repression seems justified by grabbing authority.
For every action, there is a reaction.
Aggression will always defeat passiveness - in the short term.
And the lesson goes unlearned.
But assholes beware: Your time on earth is short . . .
and for every action, there is a reaction.
As time went on, I realized that the Buck Rodgers future never happened any more than nuclear destruction or the 'Red Menace'. No jet packs, flying cars or robots that mow the lawn and do the dishes. Some of my ideas of the future were simply dreams. We can still dream but what will those dreams be? The period of US supremacy seems to be waning on many fronts. This puts less real power behind our ability to force issues; right or wrong.
Back in the Sixties, I felt like I was part of a group that was on the 'right side' when LBJ and later Nixon continued the war, I joined with other young, like minded people who were (in my opinion) on the right side. Did we change things? We thought so. Can things still be changed for the good? I hope so.
"Support the troops" is one mean slogan. Support them to get blown up and maimed? Support them to kill innocent people in another country? Support them to die in the prime of their lives for a country which is often not even theirs?
Attacking another country is always for profit. And profit is all the U.S. is interested in. Why else do we finance the biggest department of defense in the world, which does nothing else but go to war If it comes to defend the country against illegal immigrants or to help during natural and manmade disasters, they are not available, because they are busy attacking.
Attacking produces more money for the chosen few than defending the unwashed masses.
We never learn from history. And all the new means of communication serve only the purpose to brainwash people more effectively, certainly not to inform them better.
In politics, naught but quantity counts. In proportion to its increase, however, principles, ideals, justice, and uprightness are completely swamped by the array of numbers. In the struggle for supremacy the various political parties outdo each other in trickery, deceit, cunning, and shady machinations, confident that the one who succeeds is sure to be hailed by the majority as the victor. That is the only god,--Success. As to what expense, what terrible cost to character, is of no moment. We have not far to go in search of proof to verify this sad fact.
Never before did the corruption, the complete rottenness of our government stand so thoroughly exposed; never before were the American people brought face to face with the Judas nature of that political body, which has claimed for years to be absolutely beyond reproach, as the mainstay of our institutions, the true protector of the rights and liberties of the people."
EMMA GOLDMAN
Thanks but no thanks. The baby boomer politicians still aren't talking to us. Gen Xers like me care about very few issues - issue number 1 is the generation tax. Our 2nd and 3rd highest bills, in my little family of married couple plus three kids, are student loans and medical bills. We would have filed for bankruptcy, but president Clinton screwed us over by making student loans exempt from bankruptcy. Those student loans were literally as much as we paid in rent for a number of years. We have medical bills because my husband's previous boss didn't feel like offering insurance, and married women are ineligable for prenatal care from medicaid.
So, for the grand crimes of going to college and having children (while married), my husband and I get to fork over 1/3 of our monthly income. (Not including the thousands a year we spend to raise those children, even - but then, why would you baby boomers raise the child tax credit to amounts that YOU enjoyed while raising children?)
We don't have the luxury of caring about global warming - the odds of corporations suddenly agreeing to stop destroying the environment when it makes them money is laughable. We just want to hear a politician admit that forcing us to start out life $75,000 in debt is a pretty crappy thing for you people to do to our generation, and come up with some solutions.
I don't have everything I would like, but I have everything I need (i'm a low maintence kind of girl). But for my daughter and her generation I AM PISSED !!
Load the blame on my 'generation' who I preferr to call the DECEIVED.I'm aware it should be called the Complacent. I have succumbed to the reality that the day I die will be my last day at work. Strap on the Yolk and direct me to the next 100 acres to be plowed- but my plow mate better be a boomer.
The Catholic Church couldn't make me feel more guilty- for this is true indictment of sin.
I am working very hard to rectify these transgressions. But the "Baby Babies" need the help of the younger generations. We have been held hostage for so long we have difficulty overcoming our brain washing. My portion is synonomous with being the Baby of the family- sitting at the kids table, not getting the jokes, beat up by our older siblings. I hope to create anew meaning to Sibling Rivalry.
your youngest Aunt