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I am a “Baby Boomer.” A child of parents who lived through the depression and the second World War. When I first became aware of a world outside my family, my school, and my friends, I was introduced to a world where America was reaching for the stars. A world where anything was possible, and we thought we could accomplish anything we set our mind to do. After all, we had won the world war, we had an industrial base that was the envy of the world, and we dominated the world’s finances.
John F. Kennedy told my generation, “My fellow Americans ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
My generation failed to heed his advice. When we came to authority we created a society that is self-centered and an America where the first question is what’s in it for me? We have grown our political parties electing individuals who have no idea how to govern, but know only how to vilify those who disagree with them.
In the Kennedy era, the nation was divided by the racial prejudice and discrimination that had openly existed since the end of the civil war, a war fought to save the union. Martin Luther King, Jr. showed a hostile and unrepentant America what equality could offer. Today we see million dollar athletes taking a knee because of the racial prejudice and discrimination that still exists.
We now have a younger generation that sees America not for what it could be, but for the ills that still exist. Yet none of them seem to have a vision for how to make us better than we really are.
I wonder if 10-years olds have the same sense of wonder and destiny that John Kennedy gave me when he became the President?
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