To date, I have not been impressed with the 21st century; (long)

[Serial Mom]

in fact, I don’t like it much so far.

When I was in the “single digits” in the 1950’s, I thought about being age 50 in the year 2000 when the new century arrived. I wondered if that day would ever come (that was such a long time away) and how the world around me would be. I saw Sci-Fi movies - didn’t think it would be like that, but tried my hardest to figure out how it may end up. I don’t think I had even a remote concept of how to imagine the future.

In my early teen years, being invincible, the year 2000 was so far off that I didn’t think about it. In the late 1960’s being a rebellious hippie-type, I ran away to get married (just under 19). I remember wanting to see the future filled with communes, peace, love and food sources with fewer chemicals.

My twenties brought about so many changes in my life for many of the years that I was consumed with trying to salvage a good life (with 3 children & not much money). This did not allow me much time to think of the future.

In my 30’s during the 1980’s I hit an age that I always dreamed as being my favorite age, 33. And although we weren’t rich, life was beginning to be good, but started to go by too fast - the theory of relativity began to make sense. My kids would have to start high school and then college in this decade. I began to think about how old my kids would be when the year 2000 came instead of what my age would be. I dreamt of cities that were modern & clean, where they would get good jobs so their lives would be easier. I didn’t think about wars anymore.

The 1990’s showed up and began to turn my hope of the future. My daughter’s boyfriend joined the Mariners during the time when the “world seemed at peace” and the wall came down in Berlin. Then Kuwait was invaded. He was killed – one of a small number, but that didn’t lessen the blow any. There began my disillusionment. Then my stable-working 46 yr old husband who had been at the same company for 25 years was promised a “rose garden” if he would go work for another company to provide a solution for their “Y2K” problem. This caused major changes in our lives, but there was the “rosy” 21st Century promised to us.

Then 2000 arrived along with Dubya. The economy first began to sour and it was obvious that this president wasn’t doing much to help it. He had been in office only a few months when our 401K began to lose a lot of money; when my husband’s new company began to have sales down like a lead balloon; when the country began to have layoffs and unemployment began to rise. And OMG – The Towers came down. And Dubya and his misadministration began to talk of “going to get them”. And as my husband had said so many times during the 2000 Presidential Campaign, that Dubya was going to get us into a war with Iraq, was coming true. My husband’s job was lost – he had accomplished what they hired him for and in the economic conditions of the year of 2001 after September 11, was let go. A war was started without thought how to end it or the cost in dollars and lives. Greed took over and CEO’s and the economy ravaged their company's stock, 401s and people’s future. The war in Iraq, which is not the war on terror, began taking lives and futures of young men and women, destroying families whose loved ones had dedicated their service to a National Guard without thought of having to fight for this warmonger!

And since, nothing in the new century, in this first decade, has me feeling good about our country and the people who run it. I am sorely disappointed in what the future I dreamed about most of my life has brought: war, greed, division of people and governments, bombings, freedoms lost, torture, more greed, hopelessness for the poor, debt for our children and grandchildren, radical right-wing groups dictating what MY country should be, how to teach my grandchildren, what should be important to us according to their values (which are proving to be nothing to be proud of) without regard to MY values.

This is not my father’s country, the country he fought for during WWII; this is not the country I wanted in the 21st Century!

On Edit: added my father's service

[NMDemDist2]

1. i would recomend this if I could, your singing my song... n/t

[livetohike]

2. We're not dead yet!

All the more reason to try to make a difference in any way we can.

My path has been different than yours. For one thing, my husband and I never had children. It is hard to measure the years that have gone by, other than they have gone by so fast.

It is not the new century that I have dreamed of either. I have been unemployed for five years. We had to move across the country so my husband could have a job and we left elderly parents, all of our siblings and good friends behind.

I have been very involved with my local Dem. party and have worked to try to get Dems elected. It's the best I can do right now to help make a change.

[Serial Mom]

3. Of course we still try to make a difference

and we have to!

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
------Mahatma Gandhi

As years went by (and quicker each year), I imagined a different world - John Lennon's song Imagine said it so perfectly and I just wonder if it can be achieved.

My hubby was without a job for 18 months - I am so sorry to hear about your situation. Major changes in our lives keep things interesting (we've been thru a few too)and 2 of our 3 kids live on West Coast and we are in Wisconsin, but having to leave elderly parents, siblings and friends just to work can be difficult.

I just needed to state that so far, not much has changed for the better.

[livetohike]

4. I agree with you on that

(not much has changed for the better).

We've lived in six different states over the years of our marriage. We moved back home in 1994, but had to leave in 2000, because we really had to work a few more years before retiring. But now, my husband wants to retire in 2006. He is 51 years old. I feel retired, so it doesn't matter to me. We will move back home :-).

I'm so glad for DU and especially this forum. I think it helps for all of us to see that our situation is not unique. But I really thought "we" would change the world.

[Acryliccalico]

5. My feelings exactly

:kick:

[yorkiemommie1]

6. i have been so depressed

since this regime came into power. what a simpleton i was in the heady 60s to think that things were always going to get better.

who knew that an evil one of our own generation was going to cause the world so much pain and anguish?

i am just so sick of it all BUT i have started working on local/state campaigns and it has been very rewarding for me. at least i feel i am doing SOMEthing.

[Serial Mom]

7. Yes

this mis-administration is the cause of my disgust although I will not lose hope.

Before them I thought there was a good chance for true change in how people treated people. The BFEE, Enron & the Ken Lays of this country have shown that so many take the path of 'Gordon Gekko' = greed is good. :puke:

The 90's under Clinton didn't help a lot - we had it good, but the rich had it better making 14-20% return on their investements (or more) and now are not satisfied with the former 6-8%!

I too will work for my local candidates for Congress next year (against senselessbrenner).

[Lowell]

8. Great post

we must be about the same age. I remember my youth in the late 40s, growing up in the 50s, going to war in the 60s and working my ass off until today.

I worked hard all my life and have enjoyed a degree of success and financial comfort. What worries me now is that my children and grandchildren are having a difficult time getting by. If we had laid the right foundations through our labors times should be easier, not harder. But the politicians have stripped us of so much of what we built and fought for.

Since 2000 we have faced a continuous assault on those programs we have had faith in all our lives. Social Security is under attack, Medicare has been butchered and businesses are defaulting on their pensions. The stock market is a joke and the dollar isn't worth the paper it is written on.

Now I'm getting old, retirement is just around the corner. I relax down at the VFW every weekend and talk with the new members. They are the young men and women just returning from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan who are now struggling with the same demons I faced after my return from Vietnam. It is demoralizing to discover how little progress we have made in becoming a civilized world.

[raccoon]

9. Great post. I could identify with a lot of what you said.

Nowadays if I hear a prediction about the future, "by the year 2050,
yadda yadda..." most of the time I think, I'm glad I won't be here to see it.

I'm not happy with the way this century is going either.