I think that one of the reasons that the country is so
divided is that we are losing touch with how to talk with each other.
Face to face communications is disappearing, and as society
focuses more on social media interaction, it becomes easier to think of the
opposition as faceless evil. It is no longer reasonable people with differing
opinions of how to make the world better.
The lack of face to face discussions turns our disputes into
something similar to road rage. We hate that car, that tweeter, that
abortionist, that tree hugger.
The world has changed so fast in the last hundred years,
that different generations have almost nothing in common. When my mother was
born in 1914, automobiles and airplanes were in their infancy. When I was born,
the impact of the Great Depression was still very fresh, and we were in a world
war that caused damage that we can hardly imagine. When my daughters were born,
there was no real internet as we know it, no one had cell phones and a computer
was a curiosity for the general public: something to play games like Pong.
Now, our children and grandchildren grow up in world where
high technology has overtaken our culture. People no longer write letters or
know their neighbors. Everything is organized, from children’s activities to
how much soda we can be served. Many in our nation have retreated back into
social media for our interactions.
All this change leaves many without the ability to hold actual
conversations. They hide in their facebook accounts where they let their anger
and frustrations build and explode.
Older generations often feel left out of the “discussions”.
They sit at home with no jobs, no input into the new society and no hope for a
future. Their savings accounts have been destroyed by the “zero interest”
economy, they are ridiculed for being clueless about high tech, and their
culture is assaulted on all sides.
The country sits astride all these generational disputes
with leadership that seems clueless to the issues that many face. We were
supposedly “surprised” that people who had been told to shut up suddenly
registered their frustrations in one of the few ways still left to them. We made
it difficult for them to talk about issues but they finally let loose at the
polls. And now, suddenly the dam has burst, and everyone is yelling in the
press, on the internet and in person. And they are all screaming at the same
time. But we still aren’t really talking with each other.
We need a better understanding of history and civics in our
society. We need a better understanding of each other. Part of that is a better
recognition of the massive changes that our society has undergone. We have citizens
from many generations who have been left behind in this new world. The damage
has been economical, physical, emotional and structural.
I recently wrote a poem “The Skywriter” that deals with the
economical and emotional impacts of being left behind. It is about America, and
our own “hundred years war”.
Let us all hope we can find peace with each other in 2017.
Glenn K. Currie
The Skywriter
Copyright 2017 Glenn K.
Currie
He climbed slowly
into the weathered biplane,
Whispering to it in
the late afternoon cold.
The engine coughed a
tired greeting
Before it settled
into a rhythmic beat
And carried him high
into the azure sky.
The pilot had spent
his life writing on the heavens,
His brush the noisy
antique in which he rode.
For decades, he captured
the eyes of curious millions
Excited to decipher
his unfolding works
Before they
disappeared forever into the ether.
He no longer painted
the sky.
The audience had
moved to other canvases.
Clouds were now
captured in boxes,
Where words hid in
their own vapor trails,
And no one needed
blue sky or sunshine.
Instead he circled
beneath unseen stars,
Searching, in the
fading light, for a place
Where messages still
floated in bottles,
Dreamers colored the
world in chalk,
And words were still
written on the wind.
