Whether or not you are aware of it, you are in the fight of your life. Some of you know this and started fighting back with the occupy movement. We need to find a way to enlighten those who do not know this.
I am a young boomer. I was born on the cusp of the boomer and gen X. My siblings are clearly Boomers. Many of my peers are the eldest wave of the Xers.
The issues we face today are much more serious than the issues we faced when I was coming of age, the primary one was the cold war and the MAD strategy of those days. Yes, they actually named the strategy it MAD which stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. I served on a '41 for freedom' submarine that was built before I was born to support that strategy.
That was the time of disco and the founding of Lucasfilm. When according to the 'moral majority' the homos were going to be removed by gawd with the new homo killing disease, and since it was only killing homos, why spend money on research? Win - win in their eyes. Few democrats stood up to them then and quite a number winked whilst remaining silent on funding research that was so desperately needed.
Clearly we as a generation failed to stand up for what is right in many, many ways. If more of my peers and I for that matter had realized the stakes at risk in an incremental assault on the people by those willing to sacrifice my quality of life to sustain a higher quality of life for the few, perhaps we would have fought back harder.
As we boomers age and die off, you will receive an earth that is perilously close to a mass extinction event which at this point if the why still matters is being caused by anthropomorphic greenhouse gas emissions. On this, the science is clear. Many on both sides of the political spectrum will try to convince you that other issues are more pressing. You can recognize those efforts by looking to who is demonized or blamed, be it a race or a gender or some other differentiating aspect. The divide and conquer strategy is as old as humanity's social constructs.
I have never had the opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate who is so clearly and so completely on my side.
I have never had the opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate who has been so clearly and so completely consistent in their actions to move humanity in the pro human direction.
You may never again have the opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate who is clearly and so completely genuine. Who speaks of an US winning an election saying when WE win instead of when I win. Who will require you to stay involved beyond a presidential election if anything is to be changed for the better.
We are at a momentous fork in our path forward. If we choose wrongly, for whatever reason, there may not be a history that records that fact.
It is up to you to save your parents and provide a livable earth for our grandchildren. I wish it wasn't so, but it is what it is and you are my best hope for the future. Don't be fooled by Johnny come lately positions on the issues that matter. Those positions are not guided by a principled life.
I will close with one quote that I think reflects what our time needs most:
"Those are the choices I made when I came to the forks in the road. I think they tell you a lot about the choices I will make as president. And my message to you today is the same as it was yesterday, and will be tomorrow." - Bernie Sanders