But now, fifty years after that war ended, the nation seems in headlong retreat from its dream and its promise. For the first time in my memory, parents can no longer reasonably expect the world to be better for their children. Indeed, the income of the middle-class has slipped steadily for the past two decades. It now requires two full-time incomes to sustain most families. The children coming of age in this world of down-sizing and cut backs and corporate irresponsibility find that the welcome mat has been withdrawn.
Jobs are difficult to come by, offer little security, and little promise.
And in a display of cynicism which is staggering, political leaders pit the poor against the middle class in a struggle for fewer and fewer resources, and accuse anyone who questions such practices of engaging in class warfare. In the name of balancing the budget, wealth and resources are being transferred in massive amounts from the poorest of the poor and from the middle class to the rich. And, of course, in the name of their clients the same political leaders are seeking to destroy the structures which have been erected to protect and defend the environment. The promise which is our legacy from those who struggled and died for a better world half a century ago is being abandoned before our very eyes. Sometime this past summer, I happened to be driving somewhere, on one of my many unnamed errands, when I tuned into a radio station which was playing songs from the era of the Second World War.