Memo to old white dudes (political)

If you don't want to read anything politcal from the Blue Skunk, just skip right over this one. It's a re-post from Canadian Doug Jamison's Geezer Online with a few personal reflections added below.

Don't say you weren't warned. But it is just too good not to share...

Memo to old white dudes

Hey, you've accomplished a lot. Provided for your family, made sure the kids got an education, paid your taxes, kept your nose clean, and socked away enough for a decent retirement.

You were the guys everyone depended on to get it done, without fussing and without expecting anyone to make a big deal over it.

But I am tired of hearing you growling that we ought to eliminate social programs for single moms, kids living in crime-ridden neighbourhoods, jobless teens, impoverished seniors, newly arrived refugees, and others who are struggling to make a life in difficult circumstances.

Please stop sending me those vitriolic eMail messages that continuously circulate around the internet, usually ending with "If you don't pass this on, you are part of the problem."

Please stop saying, "If we could make it, why can't they," as though 2012 is like 1972.

I happen to know, because I am one of you, that our generation enjoyed the most amazing run of good luck ever seen in modern times.

Most of us grew up with two parents, and our moms were homemakers. Our streets and playgrounds were safe. In high school, we were not surrounded by drugs, gangs, and weapons.

We were provided with access to affordable higher education. Upon graduation, most of us could choose from several jobs.

Our working years coincided with a period of enormous economic growth and prosperity. There were no wars, so our careers were not interrupted by military service, or death. It was also a period of hitherto unknown mobility, so we could live and work wherever we wanted.

We lived in a stable, relatively classless, democratic country, filled with widespread optimism about its own future.  Our healthcare system ensured that we would never go bankrupt due to illness or accident. If we were smart and worked hard, the opportunities were almost limitless.

Hell, who couldn't make it in that environment? As someone said to me recently, "We won the lottery!"

So, you guys need to lighten up because, frankly, you're coming across as a bunch of crybabies.

Canadians like to think of themselves as the good guys, fair-minded, civilized. But this mean streak has taken root, and seems to be thriving. Or maybe it's just that I hang out with a lot of old white guys, and the rest of society isn't talking this way.

In most societies, elders are focused on being good stewards, ensuring that future generations enjoy the best possible future. Here it seems mostly about lower taxes and making people pay for their mistakes.

Look, I know all old white men don't think this way. I also know there are no silver bullets that will solve all the problems of 21st century society, and that many folks bear much of the responsibility for their predicaments. Not staying in school, getting pregnant too young, failing to save enough for retirement are all dumb moves.

But letting those lives continue to spiral down without offering a hand up will come back to bite us in the longer run with more crime, more jails, more police, higher unemployment levels, more homeless people and panhandlers on our streets, more drugs in our schoolyards, and general erosion of our quality of life.

So, whether you're doing it for humanitarian reasons, or to ensure a decent future for your grandchildren, you need to be part of the solution. 

Mr. Jamison's last line struck a chord with me - the bit about ensuring a decent future for one's grandchildren. My grands really are what this election is about. Here are two of the four:

These, as you can probably tell, are pretty lucky boys. Clean, well-fed, healthy, and secure. They have a loving family and are getting a pretty good education. Family values include responsibility and hard work and caring for others. Odds are they will be successful in whatever economy and society we leave for them.

 

But one never knows. Someday of these guys or someone they care about might need help. An illness. A job layoff. A bad business choice. I always think that in the same-sex marriage discussion that I have no horse in that race. But one day I might. Who knows? I want to make sure there is the proverbial "safety net" set and social policies in place by our government. Just in case.

 

I want these boys living without the aid of government assistance but knowing it is there. I'd like them to get an education at a price that doesn't wind up being like a mortage without the house at age 22. I'd like us to stop spending as a government more than we take in. (I liked the Simpson-Bowles plan.)  I want everyone to be given incentives to work and for everyone, including the rich and not-so-rich, to pay back into society for the benefits it recieves. I think we should look hard at how spend our health dollars, especially on old goats like me. 

 

I was struck by this observation by conservative columnist David Brooks, in his column "Thurston Romney Howell" NY Times, September 17, 2012

...Romney knows nothing about ambition and motivation. The formula he sketches is this: People who are forced to make it on their own have drive. People who receive benefits have dependency.

But, of course, no middle-class parent acts as if this is true. Middle-class parents don’t deprive their children of benefits so they can learn to struggle on their own. They shower benefits on their children to give them more opportunities — so they can play travel sports, go on foreign trips and develop more skills.

People are motivated when they feel competent. They are motivated when they have more opportunities. Ambition is fired by possibility, not by deprivation, as a tour through the world’s poorest regions makes clear.

We all need to be a little less selfish, as the Geezer, suggests. And I approve of his message.

Comments

[Bill Storm]

Great post.

A couple years ago I happened to be sharing a ferry ride to Victoria, BC, with a white, male geezer like myself (except he happened to be Canadian), and he and his wife were coming home from their retirement profession: volunteering their skills in building infrastructure projects in Guatemala. They. like the author you cite here, understood they were the beneficiaries of great privilege and luck in their lives, and it was their joy to return the favor to the world that had richly blessed them.

I also learned that this is not uncommon among older Canadians. International volunteerism is what they do rather than buy $200,000 RVs to tear up Canadian highways.

Yes, our generation, gender and ethnicity have had it pretty danged easy. I was able to "work my way through college" which meant I fed and housed my white keester while taxpayers covered the tab, working a job that was easy to get because I was white, male, and articulate thanks to a mom who read to me from the moment I was born. And yes, we owe it to those who follow us to not resent the consequences of the struggle they live every day.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Bill,

I am guessing there are more of us "old white dudes" that are appreciative of our good fortune than one might realize. I am not sure where the bitterness comes from when others exhibit it.

Like you, I worked my way through a state college, paying tuition and supporting a family as I went. Graduated debt free and found a professional (teaching) position paying a whopping $7,800 a year in 1976. And I never really considered myself poor, even though I was two years out of college before I ever paid more than $500 for a car!

I think Brooks is right about opportunity. It's what motivated most of us.

Thanks so much for the comment,

Doug