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Murphy Martin Commentary
September 1, 2005
"Senior Thoughts For the Young"
From pre-school to college graduate-school, students are back in the
classrooms of America. It's that time of year. It's also the
time when old fogies like me -- who some younger people in their
nicer moments call Senior Citizen -- offer my annual thoughts for
these young people who will go to classrooms to learn how to grab
responsibility by the tail and improve on this great country we call
America. It is still the only country in the world where more people
are trying to get IN than are trying to get OUT!
We would suggest the greatest danger students will face is not that
they aim too high and miss, but rather they will aim too low and
make it!
Seniors Citizens are very aware that there is a great misconception
today that there are impossible hang-ups between young people and
adults, notably parents and grandparents. It may be difficult for
students to accept the indelible stories that created the fabric of
freedom that our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren
enjoy today.
Let me remind anyone who will listen, It has been today's student's
parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who lived through
history's toughest times--depressions--wars--and they KNOW what it
is to be hungry, they know what it is to be poor, they know what it
is to be cold and they determined that these and other deprivations
would not have to be faced by the generations that followed. As a
result of their work and determination, the students of today have
better lives than their parents and grandparents ever had.
Today's students have more food to eat, more milk to drink, vitamins
to nourish their bodies, warmer homes in the winters and cooler
homes in the summer. And, the students of today have greater
opportunities to succeed in life than their ancestors. Although some
members of today's younger generation think people of my previous
generations are too materialistic, let me remind them that because
their Moms and Dads and Grandpas and Grandmas were materialistic,
students will work fewer hours, learn more, have more leisure time,
travel to more distant places, and have a better chance to follow
their life's ambitions.
Their parents and grandparents
increased their life expectancy by more than 50%, and, while cutting
the work day by one-third, members of prior generations doubled the
per-capital output. They also have the dubious record of paying
record taxes, but you will probably exceed them in that.
They also gave the generations of today a healthier world than they
had because today's student does not have to fear typhus, measles,
diphtheria, smallpox, scarlet-fever, or face the crippling threat of
polio, and, tuberculosis is almost unheard of. And lest we forget,
it was the people students call old fogies who defeated the tyranny
of Hitler under which we would be living today had he succeeded, and
when it was all over, those some call old fogies had the compassion
to spend billions of dollars to help former enemies rebuild their
homelands. And yes, it was today's student's ancestors who would
like to end ALL wars so our students of today can be spared war's
miseries. But old fogies KNOW freedom isn't free!
It was the previous generations in America who recognized racial
discrimination and worked to erase the evils of injustice and
intolerance. They did ALL these things and a lot more but we have
had some failures. We have not yet found an alternative for war, nor
for hatred, nor for distrust. So maybe YOU , our sons and daughters
and grandsons and grand-daughters, can perfect the social mechanisms
by which all men may follow their ambitions without the threat of
force, so that the earth will no longer need armies to prevent man
from trespassing against man.
Despite the problems we were unable to fully solve, previous
generations made more progress by the sweat of their brows than in
any previous era....and they did it for OTHERS ---they did it for
you, the young people of today---and for generations to come.
Murphy Martin
Your thoughts and comments forwarded to my website will be
appreciated.
e-mail
murphy@murphymartin.com
Previous commentaries:
"Role Model Challenge"
August 18 - "Network News Anchors"
August 11 - "Now All Three Are Gone"
August 4 - "Trust in the Media"
July 28 - "Television Then and Now"
July 21 - "The Mick"
July 14 - "Forty Years and Counting"
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