Dear Future Generations: I'm Sorry
World War II was termed "the greatest generation." They came back from the war and built the middle class. We followed through on our promise to those veterans and gave them opportunities for education and housing and to raise their families on decent incomes. The children they gave birth to are the "baby boomers". They had a lot of ideals about changing the world.
We lost our way. That's my only explanation for what the world turned into: we lost our way.
Somewhere from the ideals of the 1960's to today, everything changed. We went from "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country..." to "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Not "is the country better off" or "will the country be better off" but a focus on the individual instead of society. Add into that the takeaway from the movie Wall Street being that "greed is good" and we were well on our way to the place we are now.
We should have done better. I used to always sing that line from Genesis' Land of Confusion "My generation will make it right..." But you know what? We didn't even try. There wasn't even a pretense of making the world a better place. It became all about me me me. It became all about having dozens of cheap shoes from China instead of keeping Americans employed. Do you remember "Look for the Union Label?" I can remember that song from the commercials as a kid. You don't hear them any more.
People stopped wanting to think about the consequences of their actions. They didn't want to think about their choices putting their fellow Americans out of a job. They wanted guilt-free gluttony. As long as it's not happening to me, I don't care. Right-wing church leaders jumped on board with the promise of imposing their morality on the rest of the country. Screw the poor, I want to end abortion and beat up the gays. They also started the prosperity Gospel where people could amass riches and not feel that they owed it to help out anyone less fortunate than them. Except the mega-church Pastors, of course.
I'm sorry. We should have done a better job. Here we are. We have a President where it's pretty much a given he's a puppet of the Russians in undermining international relations. A Congress dominated by those who are being funneled millions of dollars to protect the interests of Corporate America, not the American people. Many of those are turning a blind eye to what is being revealed about the President. There's no promise even if he was removed from office that it would get any better. His Vice President looks like a leader straight out of The Handmaid's Tale.
I don't know what kind of future we're handing off to the next generation. Quite frankly, it looks pretty bleak from where I stand. All I can say is: I'm sorry. We should have done better. We had plenty to work with. It just became about the individual instead of building a better world for the future. We destroyed Unions. We destroyed the pension system. We're about to destroy all of the safeguards for the elderly and disabled. We're allowing our infrastructure to rot. We're destroying education. We've created a job market where people have to work 2-3 jobs just to keep their head above water. We had an abundance of everything in this country, and we threw it away with both hands.
Because greed is good.
One thing I've been saying for a few years now is I'm glad the internet is around. It will record some of the ridiculous things I've heard people say in recent years. Your grandchildren will be able to go back and see which side of history you were on.
We lost our way. That's my only explanation for what the world turned into: we lost our way.
Somewhere from the ideals of the 1960's to today, everything changed. We went from "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country..." to "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Not "is the country better off" or "will the country be better off" but a focus on the individual instead of society. Add into that the takeaway from the movie Wall Street being that "greed is good" and we were well on our way to the place we are now.
We should have done better. I used to always sing that line from Genesis' Land of Confusion "My generation will make it right..." But you know what? We didn't even try. There wasn't even a pretense of making the world a better place. It became all about me me me. It became all about having dozens of cheap shoes from China instead of keeping Americans employed. Do you remember "Look for the Union Label?" I can remember that song from the commercials as a kid. You don't hear them any more.
People stopped wanting to think about the consequences of their actions. They didn't want to think about their choices putting their fellow Americans out of a job. They wanted guilt-free gluttony. As long as it's not happening to me, I don't care. Right-wing church leaders jumped on board with the promise of imposing their morality on the rest of the country. Screw the poor, I want to end abortion and beat up the gays. They also started the prosperity Gospel where people could amass riches and not feel that they owed it to help out anyone less fortunate than them. Except the mega-church Pastors, of course.
I'm sorry. We should have done a better job. Here we are. We have a President where it's pretty much a given he's a puppet of the Russians in undermining international relations. A Congress dominated by those who are being funneled millions of dollars to protect the interests of Corporate America, not the American people. Many of those are turning a blind eye to what is being revealed about the President. There's no promise even if he was removed from office that it would get any better. His Vice President looks like a leader straight out of The Handmaid's Tale.
I don't know what kind of future we're handing off to the next generation. Quite frankly, it looks pretty bleak from where I stand. All I can say is: I'm sorry. We should have done better. We had plenty to work with. It just became about the individual instead of building a better world for the future. We destroyed Unions. We destroyed the pension system. We're about to destroy all of the safeguards for the elderly and disabled. We're allowing our infrastructure to rot. We're destroying education. We've created a job market where people have to work 2-3 jobs just to keep their head above water. We had an abundance of everything in this country, and we threw it away with both hands.
Because greed is good.
One thing I've been saying for a few years now is I'm glad the internet is around. It will record some of the ridiculous things I've heard people say in recent years. Your grandchildren will be able to go back and see which side of history you were on.
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