Tag Archives: Plato

International news, national news, national security

We’re in fine hands

You hear the refrain — too often, it seems — from those who lament what they perceive is the demise of civilization, particularly when it regards the “next generation.”

Those who complain about such things have a clear lack of understanding of this significant fact. Which is that people have been gloom-and-dooming our good Earth’s future since the beginning of time.

I like to cite the Greek philosopher Plato’s refrain about how young people five centuries before Jesus’s birth were unkempt, how they didn’t snow respect for their elders and how the world would be handed over to a generation of misfits.

He was a smart man. Plato also was wrong.

I hear much the same thing today from those who continue to insist that “today’s generation” doesn’t show proper respect, or that they are shiftless, lazy, too interested in self-importance.

I am certain every older generation that preceded the current crop of old fogies — such as yours truly — said the same thing about the younger generations coming along.

Did my grandparents once lament how their kids — my parents and their siblings — wouldn’t amount to a pile of kindling? Oh, probably. Then what happened? World War II exploded across our planet and gave birth to humanity’s Greatest Generation!

You never know how fate determines these the future … correct?

I want to say something positive about today’s younger generation. I spoke just recently about Maxwell Frost, a Generation X citizen seeking to be elected to Congress from Florida. The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School spurred Frost to “do something” to end gun violence. So, he decided as he turns 25 to run for Congress.

He’s just one of many young people who want to make a difference.

Frost and others fill me with hope — and an expectation — that our world will be just fine as we old timers depart.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Gen Z’er stands out!

Maxwell Frost has emerged — whether he believes it or not — as a standard bearer for a generation thought by many of us older folks to be, um, lost and without a purpose.

I’m not one of those nasty old people who believes it, by the way, but I do want to say a few good words about the trail that young Maxwell Frost may be about to blaze.

He well could become the first person from what is called Generation Z to be elected to Congress. He is running for the10th Congressional District in Florida; the seat he is seeking is being vacated by U.S. Rep. Val Demings, the Democratic Party nominee for the Senate, where she will run this fall against Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

But … back to Frost.

He said something quite stunning today, which is that his generation of young Americans has now gone through more “active shooter drills in schools than fire drills.”

If elected to Congress, Frost would be 25 years of age, which is the constitutionally set minimum age for House members.

I had to look it up, but I found out that Gen Z Americans are those born between 1997 and 2012, which puts Frost at the front end of that generation.

Frost achieved his political awareness after the Sandy Hook school massacre of December 2012. He became acquainted with a sibling of one of the children slain that day in Newtown, Conn. Frost, who was a teenager at the time, said he committed then to doing something to improve the lives of young people.

So, here he is. A decade later this serious fellow seeks to take his seat with the curmudgeons of Congress, seeking to put his stamp on laws that we all must obey.

Frost won the Democratic primary this week and will run for a seat that has leaned heavily Democrat for some time. “Today’s election is proof that Central Florida’s working families want representation that has the courage to ask for more,” Frost said in a statement. “I share this victory with the nurses, forklift drivers, teachers, caregivers, social workers, farmers, union organizers, cashiers, and other members of this vibrant community who supported this campaign,” he added.

Frost’s platform is straightforward. He is running on a platform of more gun laws, better health care and an improved focus on environmental justice. Are we clear on that? Good. I get it.

This is the kind of constructive payback we can see emerge from the depths of our national sorrow.

The Greek philosopher Plato once lamented how the young people of his era, 500 years before Jesus Christ’s birth, were shiftless and disrespectful of their elders. Maybe they were, but he was wrong to predict the demise of civilization as he knew it then.

Maxwell Frost is demonstrating to us that we all well might be in good hands indeed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

We’re in good hands

An interview I had with a young man reminded me of what I have known intellectually for a very long time, but at times gets lost in the melee of the moment.

I have known in my heart and my head that the next generation that will succeed us as we pass from the scene will do a stellar job of taking care of the world we leave behind. Indeed, it likely will make it better.

The young man is a Farmersville High School senior. He is a straight-A student. I asked him whether his good grades put him in the running for valedictorian or salutatorian. He scoffed at the suggestion. “Oh no,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of kids who are doing better than I am.”

This young man, Matthew Day, built a trailer from scratch as part of a Future Farmers of America project. It is magnificent vehicle he will use to haul equipment.

I mentioned this young man’s accomplishment to someone, who said, “It gives me hope.” Me, too.

I am reminded of the temptation we all have to denigrate the younger generation. I hear it all the time from those who say, “Kids today … ” don’t do this or that. Or that “kids today” are — pick the epithet you want — spoiled, entitled, lazy, shiftless.

Baloney!

The younger generation is just like all those who preceded them throughout all of human history. They will rise to meet whatever challenge rises up to confront them.

I reminded my friend, the one who said she has “hope” that the future is in good hands, of something that Plato said about four centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ. Plato lamented that young people possessed bad manners, that they lacked respect for their elders and worried that the world was heading straight for hell. The Greek philosopher was a smart man, to be sure, but he missed the boat on that one.

I met a wonderful young man the other day and I remain as committed as ever to the notion that he merely symbolizes the best of his generation … and that our world will be just fine once we old folks check out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com