Immigrants came to America because they believed that life would be better here than where they lived; for the first three centuries of our settlement that trip was dangerous in a way almost incomprehensible to people living today. Some came for religious freedom. Some came to own land or to work in ways they could not in the stultified neo-feudal society of Europe and Asia. Some came to escape poverty or prison. Some came to pursue a dream that ultimately became known as the American Dream. People could rise above the station they were born into. They could make a really good living for themselves and their children. Their children would do better than they did. And from the founding of the American colonies to the 1970's that was never questioned.
But there has arisen in America a generation that does not know the struggles of their ancestors or the history of their nation. Born in the 1970's and coming of age in the 1980's they do not see that dream in all its manifestations. They do not understand or recognize the struggle for equality that so many Irish Americans, Jewish Americans, African Americans, and women underwent and now LBGT citizens and Latino-Americans struggle with. They do not understand the value of labor unions and what positive benefits their parents and grandparents obtained from those unions; nor do they understand that the laws that govern our nations workers e.g. social security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, maximum hours, paid holidays, were not simply rights that they inherited when they were born but privileges that were enacted by the government due to the strong pressure of the previous generations.
Todays generation of under 45'ers see an America that they think is holding them back. They want to get to the top while their parents and grandparents were satisfied to be in the comfortable middle with some chance to advance. And todays generation seems to have little empathy for those less fortunate. Why should the government help poor people get heating oil in the winter - let them fend for themselves. Why should the government sponsor social welfare programs -- let private charity take care of it. Todays generation would be most comfortable I think in the 1920's since they have forgotten what their grandparents learned and passed on about the 1930's.
There become an amnesia about the past and especially our political history. Todays generation asks why we have an income tax and fails to understand that the progressive nature of that tax made it fair to their middle class antecedents. Some even support old ideas like the states having the ultimate powers in our nation and state legislatures electing Senators. Todays generation does not understand how our system of government works - of course you can’t blame them when civics and politics is barely taught today in our schools. And now even essential elements of our democratic classless society like public education, collective bargaining, child labor laws, are under attack and todays generation does not know the philosphical underpinnings of those concepts.
The political leaders of our nation need to use their bully pulpits to educate these new generations about the reasons why we forged a progress of history from 1607 to 1970 and what the social compact means and why government which gets its powers from the consent of the governed is essential to preserve the rights that this generation does value - privacy, speech, the pursuit of happiness, jobs and freedom of conscience. If we have to start all over again so be it. The history of mankind is one of inexorable progress toward human freedom and maturity. Appealing as Lincoln said to the better angels of our nature; - and following the moral injunction proclaimed some 2000 years ago that we should feed the hungry, clothe the naked and care for the sick and “love thy neighbor as thyself”. These were the essential elements of the American covenant that created a Democracy that built a Middle Class that lived the American Dream. Let that Middle Class Dream Again!
3-3-2011
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