I grew up a California child of the 60’s and 70’s - a time of war, counter-revolution, and Dr. Spock. A time of polyester, tube-tops, bell bottoms, big hair, and an unspoken belief that we were responsible for our own actions and our own destiny. My prized possession was a racing green Schwinn bicycle, with a metallic gold banana seat and “sissy bar.” A playing card held in place with a clothespin added the only “cool” special effects needed. I recently came across an old photo of myself seated proudly on that bike while drinking RC Cola, surrounded by at least half a dozen other kids also seated on their bikes and drinking RC Cola. I was 9 years old and sporting a pair of plaid polyester pants with a bright yellow polyester pullover shirt and short “buzz” cut blond hair.

   Before I could legally drive, my fellow teenage friends and I could walk the 6 or 7 miles to the beach. It was impossible to get lost as we only needed to follow the stream through a canyon. My parents would allow us to hike to the beach on a Friday afternoon and spend the weekend there no questions asked. We would arrive at the nearly deserted beach (Usually Will Rogers State Beach or Leo Carrillo Beach) and dig a huge pit in the soft sand. The pit would be at least 4 or 5 feet deep and we would place lit road flares around the outer perimeter of this pit for light. We would tell ghost stories, eat and sleep in this pit, which would shelter us from the cool Pacific night winds. At night we would go grunion fishing and play in the fairly common red and green phosphorescent tides caused by the billions of plankton concentrated along the shore. During the day we would body surf, swim, and explore the numerous tide pools. It was a terrific and fascinating way to spend ones childhood.

   Unfortunately, it would be a cold day in hell before I would ever allow my own teenage children to hike miles through rough country and spend their nights on the beach, or anywhere else for that matter. Not without parental supervision that is. When my children were only 4 and 5 years old I advised them of what to do if any of their play friends wanted to show them their “daddy’s gun.” When they were 5 and 6 I told them if they were ever in an area where a gunfight should suddenly occur they were to immediately drop to the ground and then crawl to cover. If that sounds a bit overly dramatic then you should know that of 7 homicides that occurred around our neighborhood that year, 3 had occurred within less than 2 blocks of our apartment. We were in the midst of gangland central and as a single parent with two small children it was the only thing I could afford at the time. And this wasn’t south-central Los Angeles, this was Reno, Nevada!

   What happened between the time I was growing up and the current climate in which our children are growing up? As a society we have allowed our government, both federal and state governments to regulate just about everything and everyone. Though smoking cigarettes are legal, more and more states and communities are banning this legal activity and now the Food and Drug Administration has control of all tobacco products and advertising. If we go to a state or federal park we are taxed and told to stay on clearly marked paths. Most vehicles are forbidden along with a laundry list of other activities. So what is the sense in going?

   A brand new Pontiac Firebird cost $2000 off the showroom floor in 1970. Today 2k would barely cover the cost of the tires and rims! That’s assuming that you could even buy a Pontiac Firebird in 2010, but now that the federal government owns GM, Pontiac is as dead as the dinosaur. As a society we have become more legislated, regulated, medicated, and “protected” than at any time in the two hundred plus years of our countries history. Yet we live with more fear, crime, and unhappiness than ever. Our kids grow up with the TV and increasingly violent console and computer games, but rarely actually play with other kids. Yet we wonder why obesity is such a problem with our nations youth? We are constantly warned that the next pandemic will kill millions of us. The experts tell us that this occurs every 90 years or so and we are due for the next one. Of course they forget to mention that antibiotics weren’t around during the last big pandemic of 1918. After 9/11 they tell us that now we must also fear the intentional use of weapons of mass destruction, Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical weapons, on mass civilian populations. This, despite the fact that for all the hundreds of millions, or billions we have spent cleaning up the few anthrax letters and seeking to prevent such future attacks; attacks mind you that only resulted in the deaths of an unfortunate handful of people, the government doesn’t tell us that actual mass casualties are a literal impossibility with the current technologies available.

   We are told that Global Warming will result in the potential deaths of millions and millions of people around the world. Those polar ice caps will melt and flood low lying areas along every coastline in the world! As though we wouldn’t have the sense to see the water slowly rising and move to higher ground and despite the utter lack of empirical scientific evidence to support the initial hypothesis to begin with.

   We are told that we should fear the use of all carbon based energy systems despite the fact that there is still an abundance of such resources, especially within the U.S. territories and the fact that such use is still the cheapest most efficient, and the fact that coal plants are more than 90 percent cleaner today than they were just 20 or 30 years ago. Instead these powers that be would have us cover vast swaths of land with solar panels and wind turbines that will only work as long as the sun and wind cooperate and that are incredibly expensive to build and maintain. They "forget" to tell us that these new technologies are decades away from being truly "viable options."

   We are told that the human race is killing our planet! Another absurd statement and one that I agree with George Carlin on, is that we may cause the extinction of the human species but we are certainly not going to be able to “kill” mother earth. She will continue on long after the human race is gone and to believe otherwise is the epitome of arrogance. Yet we have made great strides in better learning how to manage our negative impact on each other. It is simply a matter of priorities and simple common sense.

   Does anyone really believe that turning all of our vehicles into electric, i.e., battery operated, cars are the answer? What becomes of those millions and millions of highly corrosive batteries after they have reached their usefulness? Not that they will be of much usefulness with current technologies being what they are. The highly touted Chevy Volt is only expected to get about 40 miles before their batteries will be depleted and then its back to the good old carbon based fossil fuels for the Volt.   

   We were told by our elected officials that failure to immediately pass the TARP and Stimulus spending bills would lead our nation into utter chaos. So our politicians signed the bills without even reading them and here we are months later preparing to do the same with Cap-N-Trade and a national Health Care system. The only thing we can all really be certain of with either of these ridiculous legislations is that they are going to cost an already bankrupt nation trillions more in debt. All this despite the obvious fact that before any of the so called “stimulus” money is even being spent the economy seems to be taking care of itself. Does anyone really believe that spending your way out of enormous debt is really a solution?

Despite all this grief unfolding and yet to be felt, we American’s seem too numb or frightened to do anything about it. I simply can’t fathom that the generation I grew up with have become this wussified. The kids I knew were risk-takers and didn’t know the meaning of “no we can’t.” Yet they remain mute in the presence of our latest presidential slogan of “Yes we can!” I hope those kids, now “mature” adults who comprised my generation will remember what fun life used to be and dream of the fun it could be for our successive kid’s generations yet to come.

   Otherwise we may as well change our national slogan of “America, the land of the free,” to the more truthful reality of, “America, land of the living dead.” It just doesn't have the same ring to it, don't you think?