Suppose it was different then
I’ve been reading the most engaging thought pieces, articles, tweets, Google+ posts, and hearing people speak of a new way – just finished an article about motivating students by having them take rewards for excellence and pass it on to those who helped them, about workers who receive vouchers that they in turn give to those who helped them along the way, about a real hard look at how politics have shaped the disparity in the U.S. economy in the last thirty years, about how media and companies should be telling a story that is complicit with their customers’ experience and desire, and all of this makes me think that one day I might be having a conversation with Tin that goes something like this:
When you were born things were different, there was poverty all across America, and 1% of the population was richer than kings and the rest struggled. Students at law school would tear out critical passages from books to ensure the failure of their classmates. Education was only available to the very rich and the rest were mindlessly shuttled through standardized tests built to nurture the status quo. People in power – politicians, police, and corporations – were narrow minded and short sighted.
Can you believe it, Tin? Could you believe the world you were born into has changed in such a drastic but wonderful way? Now, no child goes hungry and everyone is afforded equal health care and education, as well as opportunity. We all have gardens in our yard and fish from clean waters. Grocery stores are where everyone brings their surplus to share with those who did not have a good crop year. Our elected officials represent the majority of our voices that are aggregated from everyone’s own internet access which is free and unregulated. Crime in New Orleans and elsewhere has all but disappeared except for the petty thievery of a stick of gum or two. Isn’t America great?