We must find our sense of urgency this election year (Barf!)

The Capitol Times ^ | 2/10/04 | Bill Berry

[qam1]

STEVENS POINT - A friend from California leaned over to me the other day and said, "Are you going to work hard in this year's election?"

My response was wishy-washy.

"You have to," he said. "If progressives don't work as hard as they can, it could take your daughters' whole lifetimes to undo this. And I'm not even talking about the Supreme Court."

The words he spoke were like a poke with a cattle prod. My daughters are 20 and 21. He has a son in his 20s and another in his teens. In a few short words, he had caused me to look well beyond my own life, and to view the future from the perspective of those young people we had brought into the world. He opened the door to a sense of urgency.

We were on our way to a weeklong conservation meeting when he shook me up. In between work duties, there was time to ponder my friend's words. Each time, they led to that same feeling of urgency.

Those of us who proudly call ourselves progressives and liberals have been too short on urgency for some long while. If crisis breeds action, we should be getting it now. Let's hope so.

There are lessons for us to be learned about urgency from sources we might not like to admit. Take guns. Those who worry about their guns have urgency. That, and fear, a powerful if dangerous combination.

The National Rifle Association has engendered the urgency and fear, and among those who would seem to have the smallest need for either. While the NRA can claim people from many walks of life, it's safe to generalize that the bulk of its membership is male and white and probably not too lean on cash flow.

Somehow, they have been convinced that they should be urgently fearful. Their pickup trucks and SUVs proclaim that fear and urgency with bumper stickers and gun racks. Those commodities, fear and urgency, translate into political power to be rivaled by only a few other movements.

They are strong enough to tear NRA adherents away from what they should be concerned about. That would include globalization at the expense of their jobs and those of their children, decay in educational systems and rot in the environment, to mention a few.

Still, their urgency is directed at their beloved guns and the perceived conspiracy to rip them out of their hands.

All said, there's no denying the power of their ardor.

A few days after my friend spoke so clearly, we were in the same room as a man named Byron Kunisawa spoke to conservationists from around the country about diversity. It's a topic well worth the listening for conservationists, too, because we're woefully lacking in diversity.

Kunisawa, who owns a company called Cultural Solutions, hit a home run on the topic. At one point, he noted that, to effect change, it is necessary to somehow include four generations: the post-World War II builders; the baby boomers; Generation X; and the youngest among us, known as nesters.

Of my generation, he said: "The baby boomers made social change, but then they decided to go shopping." The crowd had a good laugh at that.

Of the latter two generations, he noted that Generation X was the most independent in history, primarily because they grew up as latch-key children. Nesters, he said, grew up in the midst of a technological explosion, and they are often more comfortable with technology than human interaction.

His line about baby boomers took me to my own feelings, which I've visited many times before. It's been my contention that most of this generation got what it needed during the tumultuous '60s and '70s and then either stopped caring or just gave up.

Now we face the great challenge that my friend described and we must fight again for what we believe in, because it's all at stake. Every generation has its songs. One of ours was "Teach Your Children Well," by Crosby, Stills and Nash. It is our time to ponder the wise words of that song, "Their father's health will slowly go by." We were the children when the song was first heard. As our fathers and mothers, the builders, pass on, we are left to guide the way.

Now is our time to be urgent again. It is time to stop shopping and do something of meaning. We can and must do so, for we are now responsible for the future of other generations. We love these children who followed us. They need our urgency, and right now, lest we leave them with the spoils of our failures.

Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times. E-mail: billnick@coredcs.com

[qam1]

I only wish the baby boomers would just keep shopping and get out of politics.

Typical self absorbtion. He doesn't he doesn't even mention if his daughters actually want him to "save" them

[raloxk]

"While the NRA can claim people from many walks of life, it's safe to generalize that the bulk of its membership is male and white and probably not too lean on cash flow."

in other words dumb

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1980) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

[Pikachu_Dad]

So if they are worried about more than the Supreme Court, what is it they are worried about now?

[roylene]

They need our urgency, and right now, lest we leave them with the spoils of our failures.
I agree with this statement, which is why we must reelect GW Bush!

[dead]

Don't worry too much about his activism.

I'm sure by the time he finished typing this, he forgot what he was saying and just turned on Survivor.

[TheBigB]

progressives communists.

[concerned about politics]

Uh......why not let the people themselves decide what they want America to be? Why try to "force" them into voting for liberalism? Why act like a fascist liberal if you don't want to?
Vote Republican. We're nicer people. We don't break your arms.

[dead]

One of ours was "Teach Your Children Well," by Crosby, Stills and Nash. It is our time to ponder the wise words of that song, "Their father's health will slowly go by." We were the children when the song was first heard. As our fathers and mothers, the builders, pass on, we are left to guide the way.

God, that song is lame.

Celine Dion's got more balls than CSN.

[qam1]

It's been my contention that most of this generation got what it needed during the tumultuous '60s and '70s

Jimmy Carter??

[thinktwice]

Still, their urgency is directed at their beloved guns and the perceived conspiracy to rip them out of their hands.

Wrong! The urgency among NRA members is the prevention of governmental abuse within America.

[goodnesswins]

YEAH, right....

Vote Dem.....so our military can get decimated.
Vote Dem.....so you can pay for MY Retirement.
Vote Dem.....so you can pay for our Health Care, even more.
Vote Dem.....so the terrorists can know they can attack.
Vote Dem.....so you pay MORE in income taxes.
Vote Dem.....so you can aspire to a SOCIALIST life.
Vote Dem.....so you can live under an elitist system where those with the "contacts and money" get the "goods", i.e. medical care, etc.
Vote Dem.....so you can work until you are 80 in order to eat.
Vote Dem.....so you can pay for someone else's mistakes.
Vote Dem.....so you can pay for others NOT to work.
Vote Dem.....so we can continue the decimation of what's left of our education "system."
Vote Dem.....so the borders are opened wide and large.
Vote Dem.....so the Diversity Industry can continue to grow.
Vote Dem.....so the Victim Industry can continue to grow.
Vote Dem.....so every American is ripped of his/her right to defend her home and family.
Vote Dem.....so all of our freedoms are destroyed, because we are just too powerful in this world.
Vote Dem.....to be nice.....

I'm sure others can add to this list.

[Fintan]

...view the future from the perspective of those young people we had brought into the world.

I wonder if "progressives and liberals" such as ol' Bill ever view the futures lost by babies aborted because  "progressives and liberals" decide an unexpected pregnancy might interfere with their oh-so-busy lifestyles?

[CSM]

"It's been my contention that most of this generation got what it needed during the tumultuous '60s and '70s and then either stopped caring or just gave up."

No, they got what they needed and then they were satisfied. You progressives are selfish, lazy persons that are more than willing to be progressive when it is funded by the productive.

Scratch a progressive and the awful odor that hits your nose is socialism!

[RunningJoke]

It is kind of funny, I read the opposite of this in the late 60's. Although the young of that age is now the middle aged writer of this piece. It seems he has something in common with his early years in that he never grew up! Here are the thoughts of the then young of the 60's:

"What strikes one about the activist young is their lack of zest. Their obscenities are wooden, their insolence without sparkle, and even their violence is trancelike. They dissipate without pleasure and are vain without a purpose. The revolution of the young is not against regimentation but against effort, against growth and, above all, against apprenticeship. They want to teach before they learn, want to retire before they work, want to rot before they ripen. They equate freedom with effortlessness, and power with instant gratification."

"Never have the young taken themselves so seriously, and the calamity is that they are listened to and deferred to by so many adults. A society that takes it solemn adolescents seriously is headed for serious trouble. How humorless and laughable the solemn young! One realizes that one of the chief differences between an adult and a juvenile is that the adult knows when he is an ass while the juvenile never does. There is a link between seriousness and dehumanization. Is there anything more serious than a cow grazing in a pasture? The nonhuman cosmos is immersed in an ocean of seriousness. Man alone can smile and laugh."

"We are told that the young have a special talent for diagnosing the ills of our age. I doubt whether this is true. The young have a genius for discovering imagined grievances. It goes without saying that imagined grievances cannot be cured but they enable the young to evade those aspects of reality which do not minister to their self-importance. "The imagined ills" says Lauren Van Der Post, "enable them to avoid the proper burden that life lays on all of us."

"It is true that present-day young are idealistic. But theirs is the easy idealism that condemns abuses and pushes aside any thought that would reveal the difficulties and complexities inherent in righting wrongs. They are not willing to do the hard work by which alone the world can be improved. Hearing what they say, and seeing what they do, one suspects that one of the main functions of the young's idealism is finding good reasons for doing bad things."

"One has the impression that the young do not want to, or perhaps cannot, grow up. Our campuses have become dour, playless nurseries echoing with doctrinaire baby talk. You see six-foot babies clamoring for power and protesting against universities not having adequate arrangements for child care."

"Never has youth been face to face with more breathtaking opportunities and more deadly influences, and never before has character been so decisive a factor in the survival of the young. Nowadays a ten year-old must be possessed of a strong character in order not to get irrevocably flawed and blemished. The road from boyhood to manhood has become sievelike: those without the right size of character slip into pitfalls and traps. The society of the young is at present almost as subject to the laws of sheer survival as any animal society. In the Bay Area you can see the young preyed upon by dope pushers, pimps, perverts and thugs. The supposedly most sheltered generation is actually the most exposed."

[qam1]

we were in the same room as a man named Byron Kunisawa spoke to conservationists from around the country about diversity. It's a topic well worth the listening for conservationists, too, because we're woefully lacking in diversity. Kunisawa, who owns a company called Cultural Solutions, hit a home run on the topic

On a side note look at this guy's company website

http://www.byronkunisawa.com/index.html

Nice program for corporations

Diversity 101 establishes the basic understanding of issues and assumptions regarding the impact of changing demographics and cultural differences on private corporations and public institutions.

Examples of these issues/assumptions include:

1.) A NEW PROGRAM created to replace Affirmative Action.
2.) Another program concerned with the issues of every group except white males.
3.) A basic understanding emphasizing the importance of cultural requirements and organizational success.
4.) Establishing an awareness and sensitivity program to address cultural differences in the workplace.

Companies actually pay this joker to come speak to them, No wonder we are starting to lose to other countries.

[Welsh Rabbit]

God, that song is lame.

I couldn't agree more. Weren't they the band that also said, "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"? Great message. Hippies, I've found for the most part, tend to be very selfish and make lousy parents.

[CSM]

"2.) Another program concerned with the issues of every group except white males."

I thought you added the bolded statement. I had to check and see. Imagine how far my jaw dropped when I saw it was actually written that way on his web site. Talk about racist statements, this is another example of diversity only meaning people with more pigment in their skin. Diversity of thought or ideas is not only left out, it is discouraged!

[par4]

My daughters are 20 and 21

If Gen X started in '65, then the writer had his first child when around 19 - I think that he's more a 1960 baby, not 65 - 80.

In any event, he's still a self-absorbed dimwit.

[qam1]

Oh yeah, It's real and on his website.

I see one of his clients is AT&T so I think I am going to change phone services.

I also see NASA on his list so by wasting money on stupid programs this guy offers no wonder we haven't been to Mars or have a Moonbase yet.