Michael Swickard
Most people in America today cannot remember where they were when the dreams died. This includes me. What dreams? Over the last few decades America has not had dynamic, proactive dreams for young people to follow.
It turns young people off to hear geezers and geezerettes talk about walking to school in the snow. There was no school bus and my parents would not take me, so I walked. All of us in that generation did not know any better so we shrugged, put on our cold weather clothes and went to school.
Kids today perhaps would also not care to hear of my dreams while in school. Yes, I did have dreams beyond getting out of school. One of my most enduring memories is the 1957 flight of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik spacecraft. One twilight evening I watched the first manmade object pass overhead. My uncle told me to always remember that moment, since it changed our country.
Also fodder for my dreams was that during the preceding summer I stood on a military parade ground while a flight of Air Force Thunderbirds flying F-100s Super Sabers zoomed real fast over us at a couple hundred feet. I had trouble sleeping that night for how much the sight and sound stirred me up. In my seventh year of life I resolved to fly jets for the Air Force and then go into space. The moon was not on the radar yet, but space was just overhead.
From big dreams to none at all
I will not keep you in suspense; I did neither dream. My career included no military jet flying or landing on the moon. Still, powered flight has been a big interest even to this day, as was the American space program. It was an inspiration for me and a whole generation of kids. Every triumph and every setback I felt deeply. I routinely go outside now to watch the International Space Station pass overhead.
A hallmark of the last century was the inclination of Americans to tackle hard jobs and do them until they were done. There was the winning of World War II, the making of our country into the most powerful country this world has known with a mission to spread freedom and the race to the moon.
My father would not talk about his war experiences as a combat veteran through World War II and the first year of Korea. Later he spent a tour of duty in Vietnam. It seemed to me that while I did not know if I was going to make it a career I needed to serve in the military to follow my grandfather and father into combat. It was an understanding that I was part of them and they were part of me.
But then things changed. It may have been the later part of the 1960s, an unwise police action in Vietnam or just the effect of a “me” generation that has gone on for two more generations. We are in the third “me first and only” generation for most young kids. Very quickly our country has gone from having big dreams to having no dreams at all other than to try to get as much from the government as possible with as little work or commitment. My grandfather did not want Social Security when he became of age because his generation did not take stuff from the government. His reasoning was citizens should not take anything since the government only had that which they took from other citizens. We explained he had already paid, but he still refused.
Getting more than giving
I know I am painting with a broad brush and exceptions can be found. However, from my time in school to now we have gone from a country focused on achievement to one that is most concerned with getting more than they give. Only chumps give more than they get. As a generation this group of kids does not think about going to the moon. Our young people today do not seem to represent any dream.
With the retirement of the space shuttles and nothing really on the horizon in space we are not giving our young any dreams to lift them up. So very sad.
Swickard is co-host of the radio talk show News New Mexico, which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on KSNM-AM 570 in Las Cruces and throughout the state through streaming. His e-mail address is michael@swickard.com.