Where Are We Going ….?

“Ah, give me the good old days when we didn’t have all this stress and worry”.

OK, let’s go back to the thirties.

“No! Then we had the depression, men couldn’t find work, women couldn’t feed their babies, families were splitting up because they couldn’t afford to stay together. This is better than the thirties.”

OK, we’ll take you back to he forties.

“No, not the forties. We were fighting an actual World War on two fronts and were very afraid of the outcome. Our boys were being killed right and left and, at home, our life was completely disrupted as we focused on supporting the war. No, not the forties. ”

How about the fifties then?

“Are you kidding? We were so fearful of the Cold War that our neighbors were building and stocking bomb shelters and our kids were taught to scramble under their desks at the sound of the air raid siren. The TV was covering communist witch hunt trials that destroyed many lives and careers. I don’t want that fear and paranoia again, not the fifties. ”

Perhaps you would enjoy he sixties then?

“The sixties? Boys dying in Viet Nam for no apparent reason, war protests at home, assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK. I sure don’t want to go back to the sixties. ”

Beginning to get the picture? Maybe the “good old days” weren’t so great after all.

I’m not saying that everything is great today, we certainly have big issues: North Korea, climate change, political corruption and ineptness, baldness, etc. I’m just pointing out that every era had issues to be dealt with.

In fact, in many ways, these may be the “good old days”. Just think, worldwide, extreme poverty has been cut in half over the last 25 years, the number of childhood deaths has been cut in half since 1990. In spite of recent localized upticks, the frequency of violent crime is at a historic low and we have all directly observed medical advances that extend and enrich our lives.

Just like in previous decades, we will prevail as long as informed, caring and committed people engage with their time, energy, talents and ballots.

Bill Kindler