The World is Changing

by Pa Rock
Social Observer

I have a friend - let's call him Bob - who grew up in a solid, middle class family with a tyrannical father who ruled every aspect of the family's interactions with the world. Somehow Bob managed to escape his Dad's orbit at about the time he reached legal adulthood - and he moved far, far away, physically and emotionally.

Today Bob has his own family and he is trying very hard not to be his Dad. But no matter how aware he is of his Dad's autocratic views on life, Bob still has trouble shaking away all of his upbringing. He still has this notion that somebody has to be in charge of the family, and, thanks to Dad, he feels that he should rule the roost. He also has some strong opinions on immigration, legal and illegal, that defy compassion, if not logic.

But the reason that I mention Bob is to focus on a couple of his more enlightened views, things that his Dad would not be able to discuss, much less incorporate into his belief system. First of all, Bob, who is ramrod straight, is open-minded on the subject of gays in society. He has a good friend from high school who is gay, and he has learned through experience that this man did not choose to be gay, and that he poses no threat to society. He is just a person with a sexual orientation that is different from Bob's. Bob's attitude toward gays is live and let live.

The other area in which Bob has differentiated himself quite well from his Dad is with regard to marijuana. Bob has a job where he is subject to random drug testing, and he is definitely not a pothead. But he has come to realize the silliness and futility of marijuana laws - especially those that send people to prison for possession of small amounts. Prisons are pushing people out the doors because they are currently filled with three to four times the amount of prisoners that they were designed to accommodate. A big part of that overcrowding is due to the fact that there are so many first-time marijuana offenders taking up space that should be going to people who are threats to society. Enlightened countries focus on treatment rather than incarceration for drug users, but enlightenment has never had much impact on our laws or judicial processes.

So that's Bob - a young adult whose views are gradually becoming progressive in spite of the family circumstances of his youth. I mention him because I think he is representative of young America and of youth internationally. Young people today tend to think things through for themselves and not get caught up in the flaming rhetoric of politics and corporate greed. Young people voted heavily for our first African American President, something that many of their parents and grandparents could not fathom. Polls also show that they understand the need for paying taxes and lack the knee-jerk denial that is so quickly employed by their elders - regardless of the reason or need for more taxes.

This week there was an article on the internets reporting that Mexico is decriminalizing small-scale drug possession. The Mexican government tried to do this three years ago, but the Bush administration went berserk and bullied them into forgoing the liberal approach for handling small-time drug users. Under the new Mexican statues, those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, and even LSD, will be given an opportunity to receive drug treatment the first two times that they are apprehended, and they will be ordered into treatment on the third occurrence.

Bob is changing, youth is changing, and the world is changing. Change is traditionally a slow process, but now, especially with the explosion of news and information on the Internet, we all have the ability to be more current and knowledgeable about what works in this big world, and change has necessarily sped up. I trust and believe that is a good thing and better days are ahead. My Dad's generation did not have all of the answers, and obviously mine did not either. It's time to pass the torch and trust the future of the planet to those who will be residing on it over the next several decades.

Change is coming, change is good, and us old farts need to get out of the way and let it happen!