The New and Unknown

I’m a child of the 1960s so it is deep in my bones

the world would keep getting better each year: more democratic. Less racist. More freedom for women. More care for the environment. Less war.

I believed Martin Luther King’s dream and expected it might happen in my lifetime.

I remember the energy and hope in the air after the civil rights act of 1964. the music. The films.

And I get why it sounds nuts to younger people.

Because many things keep getting much worse for them.

Their lives were 9/11, the financial crisis of 2008, dumb wars which unlike Vietnam never ended, an insurrection, a pandemic, and their culture shrank into tiny addictive screens gobbling up their youth and 10 years of Trump who shocks every decency.

They have been denied a culture of movie theatres, reading books, newsprint and real letters. It was a choice made by corporations and politicians - not them..

Now they see their leaders erasing rights - not expanding them! - and sleepwalking into global wars without thought. And a climate of horrors.

No wonder we boomers look dumb to them. How did we screw this up so badly?

Some hope remains.

2026 already looks like we will need each other more than ever. Not just to get through what is coming but to build something better when we get there.👨‍🎨