our children, their future
The children are our future. It is a common theme we hear throughout childhood and we espouse in adulthood. During my childhood, I remember it as sort of a pat on the head, something to aspire to message like the words to this Whitney Houston song.
“I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be”
- Greatest Love by Michael Masser
The tone definitely changed when my son was growing up. I don’t know if it was 9/11, climate change, gun violence, resurgence of white supremacy, a global pandemic or what, but it started sounding like an acknowledgement that we adults might have royally screwed things up and were now passing on the burden. During many a recent commencement address, you can hear this undercurrent. Graduates are told they are the bright stars of our future and they have the power to change the world. Then we expect them to take this world changing energy and use it inside the boxes we’ve already built and within the lines we’ve already drawn.
Listening to young people, what they want for their future is not radical. They’d like us to be treating each other better through education, police, healthcare and gun control reform and to start treating our planet better through climate change reform. Being the change necessary to dismantle systems of inequality that brought us here is by definition radical. Its going to require breaking some boxes and drawing new lines. It might seem like “our” future is at stake, but it’s their future we should be invested in.
