I don't know if this site will change into more writing just yet, but I did find this convienient since I already own the domain...any way:
So, I received an email from a family member...nothing new there, but these types of emails i.e., political or pitting one group against another, as a rule, don't receive a reply or acknowledgment. Mostly this is because I don't like political arguments or don't do well with logical fallacies. I tend to add too much snark which tends to take away from any point I'm trying to make.
Thankfully I had been thinking about researching some emotional positions I take to see if they really are positions I believe in or if I just think they sound good to me. Most of this thinking was based on my perception versus a perception I hadn't thought of or experienced.
Below is an image of the email and then my response (the "stay home and sit" generation) in the form of a letter to my "Great-Granddad".
The Original Email
It’s a mess out there now. Hard to discern between what’s a real threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria. For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.
On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.
On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.
When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.
Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40’s, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime.
At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. From your birth, until you were 55, you dealt with the fear of polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralyzed and/or dying.
At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation. On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, almost ended. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.
Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How did they endure all of that? When you were a kid in 1985 and didn’t think your 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. And how mean that kid in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art. Refined and enlightening as time goes on. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Your parents and/or grandparents were called to endure all of the above – you are called to stay home and sit.
My letter to Great-Granddad
Great-Granddad,
I can only imagine how terrible it would have been to be born in 1900, being literate is probably not in the cards for you, you're going to be working...if you're out in the country, by 5 you'll be pulling your weight, in a city expect to be training for your new life long trade by 13. By that time the nation is rolling right into World War 1 (thanks for not ducking Franz Ferdinand!) The United States, estimates of combat-related troop deaths are about one-tenth that of civilian deaths from the 1918 influenza pandemic. Yes from the age of 14-18 you will have experienced the loss of 0.1% of your countries and ~1.3% of the population of the world to the first of many wars in your lifetime. At the tail end, as you are turning 18 a virus will do just as much harm to the world as the war did. Hopefully, if you live through the Spanish Flu, you will remember the steps taken in 1918-19 to help mitigate the pandemic i.e. social distancing and mandatory mask-wearing (but you won't). Also, be sure to remind your kids and grandkids that you witnessed the formation of the "Anti-Mask League" and do your best to tell them of the 27,110 people arrested in San Francisco for not wearing them (but you didn't). Tell them that it cost an average of one week's pay or 30 days to be released from jail for the crime of disturbing the peace. Remind them of the effects of lifting restrictions to early only to have a resurgence a month later. Remind them of what it was like to care for someone other than yourself. Better yet, maybe just save newspaper clippings of the entire pandemic start to finish so that they may understand that 'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it'. Though, you won't and they will just end up living the same horror you have 120 years later.
As you were alive to witness it, one of the main contributors, if not the biggest, of the Great Depression was to let America's banks lend to speculators with little to no oversight. This issue will be rectified and the economy will be safe again! For a while at least, by 1933 that out of control banking system will be reigned in with the Glass-Steagall Act in 1933, and your economy, while decimated, will begin to recover. So, please teach your kids and grandkids the dangers of not only lessening regulations on banks but also the dangers of allowing banks to act as both commercial and investment banks (but you didn't). Also, it would be very helpful to your future generations if you teach them that if there aren't strict requirements in place for consumer loans, then a lot of people will get loans they can't afford (because we're all just big dumb animals). Which, in turn, will cause another economical collapse (but you didn't).
Again you will encounter, from the age of 39-45, the loss of 0.3% of your countries and close to 3% (20% of which were Soviets, not a lot of sorrow for this fact during the Cold War) of the world's population to the second great war in your lifetime. With that you will be witness to some of the most horrific sides humanity has ever seen. But also during this time, you will witness a taste of what the human race has to offer humanity with unimaginable innovations like Penicillin, synthetic rubber and oil, Radar, jet engines, the earliest hints of space travel, Nuclear power, and finally computers. I'm sure it was both the most terrifying and wondrous time to be alive.
Please remember the national joy and the joy you felt upon first learning that there is a cure for Smallpox, Polio, and many other diseases; express and instill this joy and the admiration of doctors and scientists to your children and their children so that they will hold these people in the respected esteem they deserve (but you won't). Hopefully, you will not have to witness the "Anti-Vaxers" and the resurgence of diseases that were effectively eliminated in your lifetime, in addition to the weaponization of some of those same diseases like smallpox and anthrax.
At the age of 75 you had seen your country claim victory in two world wars, be part of two stalemates, and one defeat.
Being born in 1980, our country has been at war for 75% of my life, encompassing untold countries and multiple continents; I fear that you saw the last victorious war our country was involved in (if any war could be called victorious). And for what exactly, we as a nation are not conquerors, I don't know if there is even a metric at this point to gauge if our lands and people are any safer than when we started. We have a two-party political system that is effectively one-party where 50% disagree with the other because it is required to stay in power. There is no news, only hour-long shows that feed and reinforce the opinion you want to hear, show you the part of the story you are most likely to love/hate, tell you what to buy and what to boycott, and tell you what to love and what to fear. Our nation is currently tearing itself apart, in my opinion, because we have forgotten how to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. This isn't new, I am sure you witnessed this in various forms throughout your lifetime. The young, the old, the wealthy, the poor, the majority, the minority; these are all examples of actively refusing to see the perspectives of others, especially when that perspective is so far from your own that it takes work to not only see it but to grasp the very nature of it.
There are hard-lived, hard-fought, and hard loved human experiences around us every day. While we may not share the same burden as those before us, around us, and after us; I am forced to believe that the burdens we carry feel just as heavy as the ones someone else carries.
Great-Granddad, watching your child grow into and live their life must have seemed like they had it much easier than you, and your son probably thought that my father had it easier than them, and I can only imagine that my father believes I have had it easier than he did. But I think the goal, for myself at least, is to not look at my sons and lament the fact that they have it easier than I did, but to try to grasp the horrible truth that they will potentially have harder times than all of us. While looking back through your life experiences, it is a shame to see all of the terrible world events you experienced as a teenager/young adult and to recognize the parallels that my sons are facing now. Things may get smaller, faster, shinier, but the tough road of life is still in front of them and those new things will only do so much to aid their journeys.
Regards,
Your Great-Grandson