I see many hopeful signs among the younger generation.

[KlatooBNikto]

Yesterday I was at a tennis tournament my daughter was participating in.It was mostly boys and girls between the ages of 12 to 18 from several states ( Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin,Minnesota). There were about 500 kids in all.

What struck me about these youngsters was how earnest they were about their tennis and everyone was judged by their skill in tennis and how easily the kids were able to ignore race,religion, nationality etc. and come together to win a championship for their team.

That tells me two things.That the days when the Republicans can easily divide us are numbered.Our country has become too diverse and too egalitarian to swallow the Republican poison pill.The next generation will not be a patsy to this scam.

That also tells me what a great opportunity has been wasted to move the country forward because of the Bush regime's low road. People,when called to a higher purpose will rise to the challenge and meet it.The youngsters' obvious enthusiasm and energy to win for the common good of their teams was something to see.A leader like kennedy or Martin Luther King would have harnessed that for our common good.But then again nobody ever said Bush was a Kennedy.

[Deja Q]

1. I saw the same of the youth...

from the late 60s... early 90s too.

Didn't work.

If our society has a future, the young adults of the early 2000s will have to shape it or conform to the unsustainable mess that has been made. They are more likely to cope with what is to happen.

But don't blanket any generation. There are always those who are not team players*; but go about proclaiming they are while engaging in actions that try to dismantle teams...

[NewJeffCT]

2. It is changing slowly

just on my own casual observance, being involved in an interracial marriage myself, I have noticed far more interracial relationships in recent years than I have say, just 15-20 years ago. And, I don't always see just the common ones (white man/asian woman or black man/white woman were really the only ones I saw back then...) - I have seen more and more of other pairings in recent years.

I think we're slowly turning a light brown as a country.

[KlatooBNikto]

5. I look at these things as the portents of a new dawn for our society.

Along with what you say about the intermingling of our races,the way people like Cynthia McKinney, Maxine waters and Sheila Jackson-Lee have stood up for our Constitution against the Right Wing tells me that our strength now depends a great deal on the socalled weakest
segments of our society.Much like the time Barbara Jordan thundered on the Watergate Committee about her absolute faith in our Constitution.

[H2O Man]

6. I think you are right.

Humanity will return to the color of our ancient ancestors. My extended family contains black, brown, red, yellow, and white folks. The blend produces the most beautiful of "next generations."

The time is coming when the human family will retire old, inaccurate concepts such as "race." There is no such thing as race. It exists only to the same degree as other human concepts, such as the boundry between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There is no race.

Emotions such as hatred and prejudice are also man-made concepts. They do not exist independently of people. They are also not inherent: they must be taught and nurtured, or they would cease to exist. Unlike love, they represent the un-natural.

Yet it is not only our "enemies" who sustain hatred. It is an energy that we must be careful not to feed in our daily lives. It is a disease that we can take steps to cure every day.

[teryang]

3. The younger generation will put a stop to the Iraq war

They are against it and will not enlist.

Among these younger people, the topic doesn't merit much discussion. "Stupid war, you join the military, I won't"

The recruiters are now forced to use a "darwin award" approach targeting the most desperate and misinformed people. It's a tough sell. Making it more difficult is the fact that young people are too busy and active to watch the boring propaganda channels on tv.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Someone in my family has access to data on Gen Y --

I find very hopeful signs in what I've heard, and also from my own experience with kids of this generation.