Great generations
The “greatest generation” is the one that commits to deep care of the planet and our human family, and lives into that commitment with action.
June brings the season of commencement ceremonies, celebrating completion of diplomas and degrees and the beginnings of what comes next: more schooling, employment, travel, lifelong learning.
This June we also mark eighty years since D-Day, the invasion of France by the Allies in World War II that helped turn the tide against the Nazi war machine, leading finally to the defeat of Fascism in Europe.
Between these two markers - young people launching into the next phase of their lives, and a seminal event so long ago most folk alive do not remember it - we find ourselves facing stark realities.
The climate crisis is upon us, with deadly storms and record heat already in many parts of the world, and more predicted.
The signs of a growing threat of returning to fascism are glaring. One of the presumptive presidential candidates in the U.S. is a convicted felon, bragging weekly about the democratic norms and institutions he plans to smash if elected. The rights to full reproductive choice and care is under continual threat, and so are the rights of LGBTQ folk to lead peaceful, safe lives.
Much is also hopeful. The young people taking their steps into the halls of power are, in general, thoroughly committed to equity and inclusion. They’ve grown up in the era of climate change and climate refugees, and they do not question whether the climate crisis is real.
Our job, as the generation handing off power, is to avoid one deadly sin: making the younger folk feel cynical or hopeless. We must remind them of their ability to change the present and the future, just as their forebears on the beaches of France did. It does not require their sacrifice of life and limb, necessarily - it only requires a belief in themselves and the glimmer of a way to make a difference.
The “greatest generation” is the one that commits to deep care of the planet and our human family, and lives into that commitment with action.
In other words, it is all of us, if we choose.
