Class of Aught '08

Are you like me? Are you sitting around on a balmy June night and thinking about John Glenn? Yeah, it's strange how we're both thinking the same thing, isn't it? What do you remember about John Glenn? Hmmm..., really? Yeah, I remember that, but I was thinking about something else.

I was remembering being a little kid standing in the backyard looking up at the sky and hoping to see John Glenn as he passed over our house. You see, my dad told me that Glenn was in a spaceship that was circling around the earth, so naturally I thought I'd be able to just look up in the sky and see this big spaceship flying by. Unfortunately, it never happened. I stood there for about 5 minutes and when I didn't see anything I just figured that my dad didn't know what he was talking about (and not the last time I'd come to that conclusion, especially as I got older).

That all happened back in 1962, and for the 50%, 60%, or 70% of the current population that wasn't alive back then (I don't know the exact figure), turns out my dad was right and Glenn did orbit the earth a few times. Then, a few years later, we landed a man on the moon and all that other stuff you were probably taught back in grade school.

It was an exciting time, especially for us Americans, and there was this feeling in the air that the future was ours and there was nothing we couldn't do if we were determined to get it done. Now, for some reason, that feeling seems to have gone away. I'm not exactly sure where it went, but sometimes if feels like that America, the America that went to space, is gone forever.

But is it? Let me ask you. Do still feel that American technology is leading the world? Is that how most Americans feel, or do we look at European cars and Asian electronics and wonder why it is we can't build stuff like that? Do Americans really "buy American" because we think American technology is better, or rather out of a sense of duty.

Yep, we landed a man on the moon alright, yet the best we can do these days is build a phone with a built-in gps that can help us find the nearest Starbucks. It was our father's and our grandfather's who united the world, at least symbolically, by extending man's grasp and reaching out into space, and now it is our generation that has found a way to look really cool around the office or at the airport. Doesn't seem the same, does it?

Sure, we've got probes and shuttles and we're building a space station, but that's just adding to the accomplishments of the past - the ground that's already been broken. It' the new frontiers we seem unable to conquer and the new challenges we seem unable to meet. How does America respond to global warming and tight fuel supplies? Why, we pass a new tax on oil companies that's how. That'll solve the problem.

You know back in the sixties a President once asked us to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship." How different that is from the leaders of today who only ask "if we stick it to the oil companies will you vote for us in November?" That's the kind of bold vision we get now, and instead of Walter Cronkite giving us the latest news on America's space program, we get Katie Couric giving us the closing numbers from the stock exchanges and the latest housing news. Seems we've replaced the "building of things" with the "moving money of things", and, after all, isn't that really more about being clever than being good.

I'm going to my niece's high school graduation tonight, and I'm sure the speeches will go on and on and talk about how our children are our future, which kind of goes without saying if you ask me. What I'd be more interested in hearing is what these bright young grads are really thinking about as they look down from the stage at the people sitting in the audience? I think if they've got any sense at all they'll look at us, the so-called "boomer" generation, and think "what have you done with your lives that entitles you to give us, or anyone else for that matter, any advice about the anything. Sure, you've gotten fat and rich, but look at this country you're now turning over to us. Can you honestly say that it a better country now than the country your parents left to you?"

Well, yeah, in some ways it's much better, and in some ways it's a lot worse. All I can tell you kid is that we did what we could, but we let ourselves get down on ourselves and we left a lot undone. What can I say? We got busy and so wrapped up in our own little differences that we just sort of lost sight of the big picture. I know it's not fair, but you're just going to have to deal with that.

And that doesn't mean we still can't give advice. For example, if I were you I'd start by reforming the political system. No matter what there is that needs to get done, our experience has proved that nothing gets done when you have a dysfunctional government. It doesn't matter how vital or necessary the need for action, if responsibility can be shirked and blame placed on the other party then your government will rest proudly upon it's laurels. Maybe that's our fault for letting our focus become too partisan and narrow. Maybe we would have done better had we not elected so many ideologues and figureheads. The bottom line is that voter apathy eventually leads to Administrations and Congresses incapable of dealing with anything more complex than looking good on the evening news.

All I can say is what's done is done, and our generations legacy to you is a government of itself, by itself and for itself. If you can manage somehow to pick up the pieces and make it whole again, and if you succeed in nothing else, then your generation will have accomplished more than we. Other than that, my only other advice would be to just do what we did - live beyond your means, watch too much TV, drive your kids crazy, and most of all -

enjoy your new Iphones.