Old versus Young.

 

Old versus Young.

What a breath of fresh air to have an editorial from a young adult in the paper that I contribute to. My job is that of the opposition and I work on it. For a long time, we dismissed the political power held by young people who just became eligible to vote. There are millions of them, but we assumed they are not interested. I have a nineteen-year-old grandson and I know that they have opinions, analytical minds, and often a strong interest in the way we lead the country.

Their elders dismiss them, as Aiden Douglas said. In the past, people said the same about women. A known argument against women’s suffrage was that it will give every married man two votes, his own and his wife’s. I have been married close to fifty years and am still guessing how my wife may be voting. My grandson proudly told me who he was voting for. He is not voting for his dad’s favourite party. His dad, who runs a small business, thinks that he is a big entrepreneur and votes for big business against what my grandson Kaydan considers his group, the students and working people. His mother is a nurse risking her life daily while watching politicians cut her pay.

There are differences between the old and young. The old have more life experience, gather more information, but often have loyalty to someone or something that is changed or gone. They/we are also short-sighted physically and mentally. Why, for example, should I worry about fifty years from now? Kaydan and Aiden should be concerned with the future far beyond my limits. In politics, I may vote for a party that helped my parents 70 years ago while the young guys probably will be alive seventy years from now, if Medicare isn’t privatized. I may be concerned about coal while they will need microchips. Older guys may be concerned about their constitutional right to spread a communicable disease while the young are affected by cuts to education.  

Young people today are facing decisions that I never did. The world is a different place than it was in my youth. They are doing it bravely, but they base their choices on the information they learned from us older folks. They follow the examples we set for them. Is that freedom of choice? Do they have the tools they need for building the world of the future?

We the old, engineered world wars, a dog-eat-dog world, machines that  use up all the air and water that young generations need for their future. In 30 years, they may have to pay for air. We already pay and fight for freshwater. Here in our little paradise in the mountains, we see the fight shaping up today. We are facing up with our neighbours downhill about water as I am writing these words. Politicians are making the choices based on votes. Do the young people have the background needed to choose what will be their future?

Douglas wrote in his editorial about “Greta Thunberg, who is 15.” Sorry young friend, she is now 18 and still fighting. Canada is emitting only a small percentage of CO2 for its size but check the per capita figures. A billion-plus people in India and another billion-plus in China are emitting much more, but they are trying to survive while our emissions give us a life most of them can’t even dream to live. We need heat and they need cooling and food. Per capita, they do more to curb the atmospheric damage and there are no walls on earth to separate them from us. All we can do is start a nuclear war and destroy your future forever.

I am so impressed to see a young person calling other young people, who now have a vote, to dive in and do something about the way the country and the world are going. Lifeguards are especially good at it since they are trained to risk it all to save others. My generation fought to end wars, bring equality, and have the freedom to make moral judgments. We lost some but won much. At the time, we didn’t foresee the troubles the world will face now when the population doubled, corporations grew at the expense of little businesses, the Media bought by private interests to no longer give a complete picture and so much more.

I also, just like you, want young and old to take an interest in politics and have a say in running the world. We only have one. I encourage people to see who in politics are the habitual liars, who demonstrably do something for most of us, and who are concerned with what we will leave for you young people. Don’t be fooled by those who ask “who will pay for” the needs of the majority of people while giving away all of what we have to a chosen few. Ask who chose them to have what they can never even spend.   

Aiden, Kaydan, and others like them will run the world at the time that I and the dwindling group, who are now the “elders” will no longer have a say about our destiny and the world’s future. Looking into the crystal ball now is not promising. The neglect of the elders, the selfish squandering of the world’s resources, and the ruthless race for power by power-hungry people are scary. Go on like that and our civilization is lost.

It is not the only way. There is a theory, now 2000 years old, where people voluntarily take care of each other, not hoard wealth and power, while improving the world and what people will become. We must set our goals towards what is good and work for it. Elections every few years are the stepping stones to achieving the goal if we choose it.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.