My cousin recently wrote a blog post about how he believes the honesty of students is decreasing. He’s a teacher in the Midwest. He sees firsthand how the kids these days will not hesitate to cheat or lie to make their lives easier. And while I don’t disagree with this, I don’t really think it’s anything new. I made some pretty good money in my 2-year stint as a term paper writer in the early 2000s. But that’s neither here nor there.
Chuck Klosterman has a theory that Generation X became a generation of lazy, pessimistic slackers because the first movie we were old enough to understand was The Empire Strikes Back. I you remember that movie, you remember it ended with Han Solo being captured by Boba Fett and frozen in carbonite. It was also the episode where Luke learned that his father was Darth Vader and Leah was his sister. It was a prequel to Jerry Springer. So Klosterman’s theory is that because this was really our first memorable taste of culture, us Generation Xers grew up with a darker view of the world around us.
Let’s look at the generation going through high school right now. For some, their first cognizant memory is 9-11. They may have been alive during America’s prosperous years but they weren’t old enough to recognize it. Some of them might not even have been old enough to understand what was going on, but certainly absorbed some of the tension their parents carried around.
Enter George W. Bush.
You can say all you want about Barack Obama, but the one quality he has that George Bush lacked is the ability to think things through and not jump at the country’s whims.
So with Bush chomping at the bit to get revenge and appease the cries of the angry American mob, the leader of the free world, the most powerful person in the world, fed us a lie. Weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Then add to that the Patriot Act and numerous other infractions against the Constitution and you’ve got yourself a guy who will put his integrity aside to further his own agenda. I mean, just look what came from it. Halliburton. Blackwater. All of the administration’s cronies were getting in on the action and getting rich off the lies of the President of the United States of America.
So why then would kids who were 10 years old at the time and have grown up seeing their President lie, cheat, and steal his way into infamy think it’s wrong to do any different? I mean, if he can do it, why can’t they? He didn’t talk like an educated man. In fact most of what came out of him mouth was unintelligible. Why would they value an education? George W. Bush didn’t put any effort into finding a middle ground with anyone else in the world. He didn’t respect other cultures. Why would the kids think they should respect anyone around them? Why wouldn’t they think that it’s ok to do whatever you want in the name of self-serving purpose.
If you think about it, it all makes sense.
Or am I way off base here. Please weigh in.
When the drummer banged the drum, we all started marching. Left. Right. Left. When the trumpets started blaring, we all did our best to focus. To concentrate. Left. Right. To avoid mistakes. Left.
The weather changes, the air turns cold, and my atoms slow to barely an idle. My body moves in slow motion. Life sits frozen, waiting for June.
My opinions of Obama have just stepped off a rollercoaster. Their feet are firmly back on the platform and they are trying to decide if they should climb back on. But after a ride or two, I’ve come to my current position. President Barack Obama is a brilliant man.
The same goes with health care. For the past few months, we’ve seen how emotional the right can become. They’ve been taking over town hall meetings and coming out in droves with stupid signs and ridiculous claims. And what has Obama done? He’s kept his cool while they got it out of their system. Meanwhile, those of us on the left have been screaming at our televisions begging him to do something. We thought all was lost. Here we are today, the emotions have cooled. People have had the opportunity to get the real facts, and it looks like we might be on track for real health care reform. He just knows what he’s doing. Because of this patience, he allows the American people to siphon their emotions through a strainer of rationality. What we have left, is a creamy soup of progress.
America, with George W. Bush as President, was the world’s OJ Simpson. We couldn’t stand the thought of our wife with another man and killed them both. We thought we got away with it for a while, but in the end, just like everybody knows that OJ is guilty, the world watches us with astonishment as we barge into hotel rooms with guns demanding our memorabilia back.
Fortunately, we now have a President who allows emotion to play itself out before making a decision. It just might be our only hope at survival. This is why people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are up in arms. They make a living feeding off of and into people’s emotions. A President who refuses to do the same is not something they can comprehend.
One year ago today, Hollee and I got married in the San Diego County Courthouse right after a middle-aged gay couple and right before a young, hip lesbian couple. We were right where we wanted to be. Happily in love in a gay sandwich. It’s a shame what happened with Prop 8, but that’s another post for another time.
