One of my old high school students pointed out this video to me. It was one of the best teaching moments that I ever had. I had been designing lesson plans that centered on how personal choice affects the world around us. It was very difficult for this inner city kids to understand and everyday felt like a huge failure. Till this student told me how he saw the video and thought of me. I wish more people would watch it, use it, contemplate it.
I'm not sure if that link will work but it is "World on Fire" by Sarah McLachlan. That video shows that just by sitting on our couches and mindlessly accepting what the media gives us affects the world.
What troubles me is how many people are just existing in this world. That they aren't considering even one of their daily decisions. The thing that it is really bothering me is the baby boomers. They are really messing up this world and my future and all future generations.
Every one knows and acknowledges the social security debacle, medicaid and medicare, and federal debt. What are the baby boomers doing by agreeing, pointing out, shaking their heads and then heading out the door to their second homes, four star resort vacations, early retirement, dual car driving households. They don't care because they will be dead when the problems are real. Right now we just know the problems are coming but by the time the problems are real the baby boomers will have been long gone.
Robert J. Samuleson puts this argument forth much better in his article. What makes this article really remarkable is that, I'm assuming, the major audience of Newsweek is baby boomers. How will this take this article? Change their ways? Probably not, maybe they will read it, throw it away,(not recycle) and shake their heads.
I know that these two things do not tie into each other very well. Yet that is the mind of the scribbler. Jumpy jumpy jumpy.
2 comments:
Unfortunately, I think you are too right. The laissez faire attitude of the baby boomers, in general, is one that will only really breed future problems. What's interesting is they think that they are actually being proactive by pointing out, as you said, our laziness, or lack of work ethic, or whatever. Equally, they are already displacing fault, by saying it's up to our generation to solve the problems, we are the future, blah, blah, blah. Talk about passing the buck.
This is great info to know.
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