A Newer World
I have to admit that there have been times in the last few years when I have been deeply saddened by the cynicism of young people. I also have to admit, however, that their cynicism was — or is — entirely understandable. They have grown up in an age in which the institutions and the elites who dominate their world have failed them utterly. I write this as someone who taught young people for thirty-two years.
I used to teach Tennyson’s Ulysses every year. I love the poem, chiefly because the old man of the title — nearing the end of his days — says:
Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world!”
That line became the title of a book of speeches by Robert F. Kennedy — one of my youthful heroes. When he died — four months after the assassination of Martin Luther King — something died with him.
In my mind, Kennedy’s death marks the beginning of youthful apathy. But Brigette Depape’s quiet, dignified protest in the Canadian Senate last week, gave me hope. Even more inspiring was her explanation of why she did it:
Our views are not represented by our political system. How else could we have a government that 60 per cent of the people voted against? A broken system is what has left us with a Conservative government ready to spend billions on fighter jets we don’t need, to pollute the environment we want protected, to degrade a health-care system we want improved, and to cut social programs and public sector jobs we value. As a page, I witnessed one irresponsible bill after another pass through the Senate, and wanted to scream “Stop.”
She knew what the consequences of her actions would be — she was fired — and she accepted them. Nonetheless, she believes — or, at least, hopes — that good will come from it:
Such a system leads us to feel isolated, powerless and hopeless — thousands of Canadians made that clear in their responses to my action. We need a reminder that there are alternatives. We need a reminder that we have both the capacity to create change, and an obligation to. If my action has been that reminder, it was a success.
Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy would have understood what she did and why she did it. They would applaud her — as do I.
Owen Gray grew up in Montreal, where he received a B. A. from Concordia University. After crossing the border and completing a Master’s degree at the University of North Carolina, he returned to Canada, married, raised a family and taught high school for 32 years. Now retired, he lives — with his wife and youngest son — on the northern shores of Lake Ontario. This post is cross posted from his blog.
6 Responses to “A Newer World”
Thank-you for sharing these thoughts Owen. It seems to me that if our inability to control greed, ignorance, and the lust for power prevents us from discharging the debt we incur by bringing new humans into the world, then we should stop procreating. That said (and I know this is the point) discouragement is not an option. I agree, the loss of Robert Kennedy was a wound this country never truly recovered from.
Total waste of time…
The only way to protest is to organize the opposition and to send them out in the street and have them paralyze the entire country, particularly businesses who fund the opposition…
That’s how you do it…
Gc, with all due respect, your response misses the mark. This is no glorification of youth. It is the realization of a pivotal moment in history lost. Given your heavy partisan leanings here I don’t expect you to understand this. Perhaps if the GOP had managed to come up with someone with as much potential sometime between Teddy Roosevelt and now you would be less inclined toward a sour grapes interpretation of history.
It’s OK if you don’t don’t understand the significance of that part of history. Not everything can be quantified and broken down in a way that reveals the whole, and it becomes even more challenging when ideology can’t be removed from the deconstruction. As I said before, this is not about “glorifying your youth” or “Good ‘OI Days”, it’s about a pivotal moment and missed potential. Maybe you had to be there.
I usually leave it to others to comment, gc. But I think I should enter the discussion at this point. Young people have changed the course of history.
My father was 20 years old when he went to the South Pacific during World War II. The end of the Vietnam War began with Eugene McCarthy’s presidential campaign — spearheaded by his “children’s crusade.”
While Rosa Parks and several experienced adults fought Jim Crowe laws, many of the “freedom riders” who rode Greyhounds into the South were barely out of their teens.
A generation of young people have seen no value in this kind of commitment. It’s heartening to see an exception to the rule.
It’s always unwise to indulge in wild speculation. But, because Kennedy was against the War in Vietnam — and because Nixon continued and expanded the war for five years after Kennedy’s death — it’s safe to assume that Kennedy would have ended the war sooner.
There would be fewer than 58,000 names on that black marble wall near the Lincoln Memorial.