It’s been a struggle. We watched our parents struggle as corporations, the wealthy, and government itself sabotaged unions, froze or cut wages, and sent jobs off-shore or to low-wage, anti-union states. Corporate raiders decimated large and small companies, merged, broke up, and sold-off companies’ assets – their real estate, their products, and, yes, their people. One job became two, then three, just to keep a roof over our heads and food on our table. And politicians slashed public services – public schools, public waters, public roads, public health. We know what that kind of economy leads to – and we don’t want that for our children.
We’ve been bewitched long enough by promises of great leaps forward if only we would put our tax dollars back in our pockets. We’ve done that – we stopped investing in the services that every community needs to thrive. Schools beg for help from parents and neighbors. Roads go unattended, become nearly impassable. Tap water is suspect, with families reduced to bathing using bottles of water. Insurers limit the medical care our growing children need, judging whether our child’s treatment is worth the cost.
This cannot be our legacy. Our children deserve better. Future generations must have time to invent, to innovate, and to thrive.
We have a duty to uplift our children and our grandchildren. Our legacy to our children must be a fertile world that encourages exploration, shares discoveries, expands each other’s universe, and grows our democracy.
We have a duty.
