What will you leave the next generation?

I don't have children, but many of my friends do. Their kids are beautiful. Each and every last one of them beautiful. You can't help but love them. Kids just tend to be that way; wonderful creations born of two people. I'm looking forward to seeing who they grow up to be, and believe that they will all grow up to be good, contributing members of society. Of course I still want them to be kids too. Adult life can wait and childhood goes by too quickly for all of us.

Do you remember what it was like to be a kid? It was cool wasn't it? Do you remember the first time you rode a bike? How about the first time it was without training wheels? Your best friend as a child? Favorite toy perhaps? What about the shavings in the crayon sharpener? The smell of paste? Learning who to read and write? Sesame Street?

You were a kid once. All the good things in childhood are the foundation of a person's sense of good as an adult. If any of the lessons of early life are skewed and distorted they may have the effect of helping create a person who is out of touch with the things that are truly important to the continuation of a meaningful life for that person. In some cases it may affect far more than that.

Imagine there's a collaboration between many people who were brought up in a world of intense pressure and hate. Imagine those people are led to believe lies and made to hate those that are different from them. Imagine the lack of true understanding they would have. Imagine those people never got past the moments in their early life that brought them so much pain. Imagine those people are in power. It's not hard to imagine that it could affect everybody.

Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, said this about the election:

"This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

If there a legacy that we leave the next generation I hope it's not based on the Republican Party. This type of strategy very clearly shows a manipulative strategy lacking in morals and clear judgment. Think of the lack of ethics involved with such a horrible statement. It's clearly reflected in the fact that the nation isn't aghast of Sarah Palin and McCain's selection of her after the Vice Presidential Debate (which was not a debate, more of a forum really. No real debate structure existed. Wiki debate)

John McCain came from a military family. His father was an Admiral. Very lofty indeed. John McCain was 894 of 899 in his class at the Naval Academy. 894 of 899. Not Admiral material, that's for sure.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a General. Ulysses S. Grant was a General. George Washington was a General. Very lofty indeed. They excelled. They were not 894 of 899.

With such low standards, in an age of low standards, this nation will be plunged into a hell Danté could not have imagined.

With McCain/Palin we will...

... be broke.
... be sold to corporations and conglomerates hell bent on Globalization.
... become part of a new age of slavery based on economics run amok.
... be choking on nearly unbreathable air.
... see the nations preserves and parks sold for their lumber, minerals, and other resources, while the animals that live there all die off.
... face the loss of scientific advancement to a new dark age.
... say goodbye to many species of animals and plants. Many of which may hold the keys to mankind's ailments.
... face a renewed age of nuclear threat to life on earth.
... lose understanding and diplomacy on the world's stage.
... be hated by almost all the nations of the world (and not because of jealousy).
... see more attacks on our nation.
... go from civilization to a nation of warring tribes, like all faith based nations.
... potentially see the end of mankind.

As these kids grow I wonder what their world will be like when they are at my age. It is, after all, the world we will leave to them. Will it be a paradise that feeds ambrosia to mankind, or will it be a desert where they squeeze water from rocks?

John Lennon is right. We should heed his words. If we imagine anything, anything at all, and strive to make it real it should be this, the words of one of mankind's greatest artists:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one