Optimism for Gen Z

The 1960s started with primal drums, soaring guitar solos, and a bass line like a freight train. I got on board at the earliest opportunity. It didn’t much matter where the train was headed, bound for glory or bound for hell; one was just as good as the other. All that mattered was that it was bound for someplace, someplace other than where I was at.

We didn’t think the ride would last forever; most of us weren’t thinking at all. Still, none would have predicted that it would end in just a few short years. It died young, bleeding out in the mud of Vietnam, on a balcony in Memphis, in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen, and on a college campus in Ohio.

But in that brief time, we ushered in the environmental and civil rights movements, and put an end to the Vietnam war, driving two presidents from office in the process.

Gen X brought something to the table. They gave us extreme sports. No one will argue that snowboarding isn’t more fun to watch than cross-country skiing.

Millennials take issue with just about everything but haven’t produced one decent protest song. 1966 saw me bounced out of high school because my hair was over my ears. In 1976 we saw Jimmy Carter, wearing his hair over his ears, elected to the presidency. I’ll wager it will be quite some time before we see a person with a man bun in the Oval Office.

My two sons are Gen Z. Watching

this group develop has given me cause for optimism. When they read the news on their phones, they call it doom-scrolling, but they are tuned in.

Lighten up, kids, all you have to do is fix this world.

DAVID MALCOLM ROSE

Hot Springs