The . Worst . Generation .

This was sent out to me by a friend:
His friend, the original sender, called it The most honest three and a half minutes of television, EVER...
The reference was to the beginning scene of the new HBO series "The Newsroom" explaining why America's Not the Greatest Country Any Longer... But It Can Be.




My friend commented, "that's not all." I agree.

Here begins my rant:

I would add Cuba as a free country to the list of European free countries listed in this show, a list which came out of this all white panel, I might add (yes, I know it's just a tv show but that's the way producers see this country unless we demand change) -- Cuba . Cuba has caught my attention with 100 percent literacy, a doctor and psychiatrist per 100 people, a human rights based constitution with an extremely low GNP which has caused them also to be an organic eating and clean water country lacking the funds to get pesticides.

Most of all, I beg to differ.

The young person who asked the question whom the central figure of the new HBO series, "The Newsroom," dismissed with the label "sorority girl," and who stood stunned while he ranted, with accusatory forefinger jabbing at her emphasizing each "dot" in my opinion does not belong to what he called the "worst.generation.ever."

I do. HE does. WE are the generation who had the biggest dreams forged out of our coming of age in a nationwide struggle for end to war and justice. Many of us whose youthful dreams were not destroyed in war, put themselves on the line, including returning vets, I might add, for what was right however angrily. We knew we'd been lied to. We knew who didn't care. And, sad to say, after all that youthful sacrifice, by droves whole segments of our generation "grew up?" and joined the "takers" to get their share, then doom our children and grandchildren into debt in order to go to college, when we were given a boost up with national defense loans which we did not have to pay back in full if we worked in "poverty areas." And knowing the TRUTH what is our excuse for George W., Bill Clinton, Warren Buffet (yah, I know that one is a liberal President, but, a liberal who put us into wars, and another is thought to be a philanthropist but he gives as many of his ilk by amassing wealth for greedy reasons at the expense of the survival of the earth, benefiting from Reagan's legacy of corporations being human beings and spawning showy funding endeavors of THEIR choice which must be done THEIR way.) What a legacy. So let's not point fingers at the younger generation. I did not mention our present President because he is of the next generation. That is for them to say. We have done enough damage, we have not passed on to the next generation what was important enough to fight for; we have not stayed in the good fight for as long as it takes. Where is the authority for any of us to be pointing fingers at another generation. For those of you of our generation who never gave up the struggle, I don't think you're taking this personally because that's one thing we learned. Not to take the USA and politics personally, but to take personal action, big or small, and keep that fire alive and eyes open as to where we start and where the system begins. As Jose Marti said, "I have lived in the monster and I have seen its belly." People may not like our rhetoric, call it outdated, but it still suits me fine in trying to say what it is (my rant). What America is is the country which uses the most. What America also is is the most incredibly diverse country. It's time we used our great resource, the people, ourselves, and it is time we USE LESS/GIVE MORE, speak out more to the lies we are being told, reach deeper and find our commonsense as human beings, stop the fear, cause some ruckus in what craziness our media, our political parties, our so-called leaders are up to and do more . . . goodness

Instead of objectifying the young girl and everyone in her age group with his self serving rant, the pompous ass character of this new series on the Newsroom could have done as one of our elders must have when we were young, coming to them with our questions after learning we've been lied to by a nation, by everyone. Each one of us have in our personal history someone who treated us with respect and put themselves with us, not at us, and simply asked back, "Let's look at your question first, 'What makes America the greatest country in the world?' shall we? IS American the greatest country in the world? Why? . . ." and so the questions flowed, and we began our journey together. My mentors, both men, neither pompous asses, but my best teachers: John Goettsche, second generation German American high school government teacher, Caldwell High School, 1962 - 1963, and Jay Jones, African American counselor and adult education class instructor at Lane Community College, 1970, "Black Experience."