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thatcrazycajunHappy zeroth birthday to the three hundred millionth person in the United States of America's population, born at approx. 7:45 this morning Eastern time, according to the Census Bureau's Population Clock. (Of course, we're still a distant third behind India and China, who are each on their second billion.) I only wish we had a better world to welcome you into. We who are adults, our parents and their parents bear the responsibility for screwing it up, and on their behalf I apologize most profusely.
You enter a nation made far less safe and far less free by severely messed-up priorities on the part of our leaders, and turned into an object of scorn, derision and hate the world over where once it was a beacon of hope and freedom.
You enter a world six decades into lying under the threat of nuclear-weapon holocaust, made more so lately by the egotism, megalomania and stubbornness of madmen in North Korea and Iran and willful blindness on the part of the world's other leaders in dealing with them.
You enter a world where whole continents of people suffer under conditions of disease, overcrowding, starvation and privation you hopefully will never be able to even imagine, much less have to experience.
You enter a world where war still consumes much of the human race's time, energy, resources and passion, devastates whole regions and causes both combatants and innocents caught in the middle to needlessly suffer death, maiming and exacerbated poverty and ill-health.
You enter a world polluted to the point of melting the polar icecaps, ripping the tropics apart with hurricanes, tornadoes and tsunamis, and generally made far less safe and healthy to live in by our own shortsighted behavior.
This is to warn you of it all...and give you hope to fix it where we could not. Happy birthday, my child—and good luck. Believe me, you'll need it.
You enter a nation made far less safe and far less free by severely messed-up priorities on the part of our leaders, and turned into an object of scorn, derision and hate the world over where once it was a beacon of hope and freedom.
You enter a world six decades into lying under the threat of nuclear-weapon holocaust, made more so lately by the egotism, megalomania and stubbornness of madmen in North Korea and Iran and willful blindness on the part of the world's other leaders in dealing with them.
You enter a world where whole continents of people suffer under conditions of disease, overcrowding, starvation and privation you hopefully will never be able to even imagine, much less have to experience.
You enter a world where war still consumes much of the human race's time, energy, resources and passion, devastates whole regions and causes both combatants and innocents caught in the middle to needlessly suffer death, maiming and exacerbated poverty and ill-health.
You enter a world polluted to the point of melting the polar icecaps, ripping the tropics apart with hurricanes, tornadoes and tsunamis, and generally made far less safe and healthy to live in by our own shortsighted behavior.
This is to warn you of it all...and give you hope to fix it where we could not. Happy birthday, my child—and good luck. Believe me, you'll need it.
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Date: 2006-10-17 01:34 pm (UTC)And happy birthday, young 3*10^8 :-)
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Date: 2006-10-17 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 03:17 pm (UTC)The one which comes most to mind is that we've got the best communication system the world has ever known, which makes it harder to ignore what's going on, and improves the odds of fixing it.
Any others?
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Date: 2006-10-17 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-19 08:05 am (UTC)