I was told once by an elderly woman that she decided when she reached a certain age she was going to retire from causes and begin to live her life with rose-colored glasses and not get excited about anything. Being a young woman full of passion for various causes, I found this revelation unfathomable. I did not understand how someone could stop caring when there are so many things to care about. When I asked her, "How can you not care?" She answered simply, "I have you to care for me." She was passing the torch to the next generation. I understood the how of this many years later.
I am now, still more years later, beginning to understand the concept of passing the torch and letting go of the causes and passions that have driven my actions since that fateful day in November of 1963, when the world as we knew it turned upside down. Goldwater vs. Johnson, civil rights, cities burning down, riots all over the country, Black Power on overdrive, King assassination, Bobby's assassination, the violence-filled 1968 Democratic Convention, Kent State, Vietnam, peace demonstrations, marches, Watergate, presidential resignation, abortion rights, women's rights, Cold War and nuclear proliferation, and on and on. My whole adult life has been one cause or one crisis after another or so it would seem. I'm tired. I'm ready to pass the torch. I want to go off to my own little world where bad things are ignored and life goes on; where I'm not expected to DO something. I want my own pair of rose-colored glasses.
You wake up one morning and realize that many of your former passions were follies of youth and had consequences you never envisioned. You also know that many of your causes were good and right and good things grew from the fight. And because you have matured and you can look back with more objectivity and have mellowed in many areas and become more intense in others, you get accused of not supporting the very things you fought so long and hard for. I'm tired. I want my own pair of rose-colored glasses.
Millions of Americans already have their own rose-colored glasses so someone must be able to tell me where I can get mine. I think there is still a generation left who will be qualified to take the torch and run with it. I don't hold out as much hope for them , however, when it is their turn to pass it on.
There are forces afoot in the world that can only be stopped by those of strong will determined to fight the fight to the death if necessary. The enemy is willing to. There are those willing to pick up the torch and keep up the fight, but for how long and how many if no one comes behind to watch their backs.
Today, as never before, I experienced what I would call the "sigh" factor. You know what I mean. When you hear something that is so discouraging, you have no real words to explain your feelings and you take a big breath and let out a long exhausted sigh. Today, I was sighing as I heard that the Democrats plan to meet with George McGovern and plan their war “situation” strategy. I at first felt overwhelming disgust, followed by anger. I thought, "are they crazy?" McGovern? Do they want to turn the people against them in the very first week? But, then I thought about how I just don't have the energy for this fight anymore. When history begins to repeat itself and you find yourself suddenly back 30 years and fighting the identical battles you fought back then, the whole exercise seems rather hopeless and useless. I find it extraordinary that there are any Americans alive today who would make McGovern some kind of spokesman on war strategy. He is a loser who advocates a losing strategy and has a losing mindset. Surely there is someone who will speak up? But, if they don't, tell me why I should care anymore? I only really care for the sake of our brave military, but they are already set to be trashed and to be left to crash and burn, that die was set the minute the ballots were counted. Is it my job to fight the fight again and again.
I'm tired. I want my own rose-colored glasses.
Nice piece. Thanks for your comments. We are on the same page indeed!
Posted by: George Mortensen | 11 November 2006 at 06:29 AM