Restoring Our Tarnished Legacy

In the bloom of our passionate and idealistic youth, my generation believed we could make the world a better place by ending war, eradicating poverty, freeing the oppressed, and saving the earth from the ecologically-destructive footprint of the human race.

But, as John Lennon aptly put it, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."  Looking back now, I often wonder how, as a generation, we allowed our collective compassion to be consumed by the very behaviors we once condemned.  How we have become the establishment we so ardantly once blamed for the world's injustices.

Headlines and evening news videos remind us that soldiers and civilians are still senselessly dying from unjustifiable (and immoral) wars... that poverty and disease still run rampant worldwide... that race and religion still separate us... and that our planet is, more than ever, still threatened by our disrepect for her.

Though we might have become so caught up in our own lives and livelihoods that we set aside that spirit of peace and compassion that defined us in the 60's and 70's, we need to renew our commitment to make the world a better place.  Though "you may say that I'm a dreamer" (to borrow from John Lennon again), I believe we still have a chance to restore the tarnished legacy of our idealistic youth.  I believe we can still make a difference.