Grandfather’s Apology

[babylonsister]

Grandfather’s Apology

by Robert Barkley Jr.


Dear Spencer, Sarah, and Brooke:

First, I must tell you once again that I love you dearly. And the same was and is true of my two children who are, with their spouses, your parents. But in their case, I was fairly confident I would be there to protect and guide them through tough times -- as well as to celebrate the many good times. And luckily, so far, there have been far more good times than bad.

But, alas, unfortunately, I fear some very bad times ahead. And I suspect I will not be here for much of those times -- although they coming so fast and luckily I am in such good health that I may see more of these bad times than I had hoped to. The upside of that is that I will be able to see each of you some more -- despite the hard times.

Now let me get to the real reason for my letter.

And that reason is that I want to apologize to you. I want to apologize for what I, and my generation, have left you to clean up. You cannot help but do a better job than we have. I guess we did some good things along the way, but it sure doesn't feel that way now as we approach one of the most important and negative presidential campaigns I have ever experienced. And no matter which candidates when that election, I am not confident we can get our mess cleaned up soon enough and well enough to make the difference I had always envisioned for you and your generation.

First, there's the environment. What a beautiful world we live in -- still despite all we have done and are continuing to do that is destroying it. We have allowed our worship of cars and energy and fancy buildings and animal slaughter and uncontrolled population growth and chemically manufactured foods and drugs and easy living to go on so long that we have literally plundered our land. Now we are threatened with an irreversible change in our planet. I sure hope that you can all survive and be happy here and that your friends will also, but the prognosis sure isn't very good. I apologize for leaving you with all that. It isn't fair.

Second, irresponsibly we have even done many of the things I just mentioned beyond our means to pay for them. So we have built up this awful thing called debt. It means that we spend money we don't really have and don't even see our way to getting. It's silly I know, but our government has done it, our businesses have done it, and many of us have done it personally. It was stupid and greedy and horribly unfair to you, but it's done. I apologize for leaving you with all that. It isn't fair.

Third, as mentioned already, we have grown our population to such an extent that we apparently will not have the water, food, and employment opportunities to handle all those people. This means that the already extremely high levels of poverty and starvation now present in our world will only grow larger -- even among people who came from decent families and are reasonably well educated. How could we allow this to happen? It's sad and very depressing. I apologize for leaving you with all that. It isn't fair.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/24-3

[Wabbajack_]

1. Why personalize it

Doesn't sound like it's Mr. Barkley's fault.

[babylonsister]

2. He obviously feels responsible because his generation

hasn't helped. Why not? I think this was so sad, but nice.

[mikelgb]

3. 9/11 wasn't Richard Clarke's fault either, but he did the right thing

[babylonsister]

4. Perfect analogy-thanks. nt