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V. Generation One
Peace on Earth is possible. The proposals outlined in these pages show how we can use the wealth generated by peace to provide incentive and unite us all in common cause. But, if we’re honest with ourselves, it is already too late for most of us to become the ‘better’ people implied by the changes proposed here. Our fears and prejudices are already too ingrained. We weren’t raised to it. We have seen how harsh the world can be.
But when we look into the eyes of our babies, all we see is goodness and light, the goodness and light that once beat within us all. We ought to be trying to preserve that innocence and wonder, rather than re-shaping it. Instead of preparing our kids for the cold, harsh realities of the Real World, we ought to be making it our responsibility to do something about those cold, harsh realities. Trillion dollar deficits and jihads aren’t the answer to anything.
Mankind needs to start thinking beyond Today, if we are to have a Tomorrow at all. We need to envision the world we’d like to leave for our grandkids, then be willing to do what it takes to build it for them. For all of them. For all the children of our Tomorrow.
We need to start thinking globally instead of nationally. We need to start thinking in terms of generations, not annual reports. We need to stop dumping all of our problems in our grandkids laps. We need to start being accountable for this fragile slice of time with which we’ve been entrusted. We need to break from the past and start over.
History seems to show a mankind that is essentially good and nurturing, driven by powers that ultimately make us do bad, selfish things. Unfortunately, power writes the history books while 99% of us just want to wake up and get through the day. Since the dawn of time we’ve let ambitious men seize the reins of power and take us places we didn’t want to go. Rarely will what they want be in the best interests of the rest of us. Rarely will what they want be in the best interests of the kids, theirs or ours. By continuing to do things this way, Mankind will never know any peace, stability, or continuity. Our future will be as chaotic as our past. Only shorter.
But it really wouldn’t take all that much to turn our world into a Paradise. Truth be told, most human beings don’t really need all that much to be happy and content. Fill our lives with good relationships, keep our curiosities stimulated, let us feel secure, and we’ll take care of the rest. Let us take care of the common sense basics and build from there. Let us get to a safe place and then take a good long hard look at ourselves.
A humanity that lives in harmony with each other, and our world, is a radical departure from everything we’ve ever known. We need to re-direct the energies of our Best & Brightest to nobler causes. We need to want to be better people. We need to believe. We need incentive. We need to find a cause so powerful that it casts aside our fears and prejudices, uniting us all in common cause. What better cause than our kids? What better cause than Generation One?
As America’s Baby Boomers approach their Golden Years, might it not just be prophetic that we’re on Generation Y-and-a-half or something like that already? The alphabet ends with ‘z’. That seems to imply that we’re very near the end, or very near a new beginning. Let us pray it is the latter.
Starting anew won’t be easy. Raising our children to be better people than we’ve been will require changes in thinking that seem to go against the grain of everything we are. But what choice do we have? Things are evolving too fast. Two people can’t truly prepare a child for the complexities of the coming days, much less one. And our only hope lies with our children.
A man and woman getting together and making a baby is the oldest implied primal right there is. Yet, until about a generation ago, the extended family and close-knit community played a major role in raising that child and providing the canvas upon which it painted its life.
These days that role is filled by Joe Camel, Puff Diddy, and Quentin Tarantino. Can this in any way, shape, or form be a good thing? Is this, and an under-funded, unappreciated, Prop-13ed school district what we want raising our kids?
Peace on Earth begins, and ends, with education. We have proven ourselves to be eminently adaptable creatures. We will be what we are taught to be. We can be taught to quit peeing on the rug, but we need to be taught while we’re still puppies.
The children of our world is a cause that can unite us all. It is the proverbial ‘offer you can’t refuse’. It is a cause we can all share.
Generation One is just a concept. Turning it into a reality will require schools, hospitals, and ballfields, peace, prosperity, and a different way of looking at things. It will mean dismantling the war toys and putting the brakes on Wall Street. It will mean reaching out to each and every child as if they were our own. It seems to be the hope our kids have of having anything left of this world worth having. It seems to be the only hope our kids have…period. United we stand. Divided we fall.
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