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Bill Knight - January 5

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wium/local-wium-998930.mp3

Macomb, IL – A New Year's letter to my son

Dear Russell:

I've been writing these annual letters to you since 1994, when you were 7 years old and more concerned with the X-Men's Wolverine battling bad guys than more complicated issues or even first grade. Now you're about to finish law school, and as I write this on December 21, it's exactly one year before the end of the world, according to one interpretation of a Mayan calendar reference.

"Really," you might think.

Of course, predicting doomsday has been a failed endeavor for many centuries, from ancient Nostradamus prophecies to the profitable Left Behind books.

Most recently, conservative evangelical and Family Radio president Harold Camping -
who first predicted the End of Days in 1994, again, when you were a Tiger Cub in Scouts - said the world would end last May. Then October.

Australian professor Sven Gronemeyer told ABC News that the Mayan prophecies are more like the frenzy over "Y2K" that had folks stockpiling nonperishable foods before the new Millennium.

Gronemeyer said, "Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas and always assume the worst."

The best response to the hoopla might've come from our own parish priest, who - before one of Camping's 2011's scheduled starts of Armageddon - smiled and said, "Maybe we're ALREADY in Heaven."

Certainly, things are relatively decent for many human beings. Think of 100 years ago; 1912 was when the unsinkable ocean liner the Titanic sank, New Mexico and Arizona were just admitted to the Union, authorities declared martial law in a long textile strike in Lawrence, Mass., U.S. Marines invaded both Cuba and Nicaragua, and Teddy Roosevelt was nominated as the Progressive Party candidate only to be wounded by a gunman in Milwaukee a couple of months later.

Two hundred years ago, there was the War of 1812, which many historians say we lost (our capital was burned) and which sparked unrest with Native Americans, many of whom identified settlers as invaders and sided with the British. Some Midwestern tribes, such as the Potawatomi, fought early Illinoisans. Potawatomi destroyed Fort Dearborn in what would become Chicago, and killed about 100 soldiers and settlers. After the War of 1812, some veterans got 160-acre land grants in the Illinois Military Tract, the area between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers - in west-central Illinois.

Today, we have cleaner air and water, transportation without hay or horse cleanup, indoor plumbing so we don't have to traipse out into the weather to use a backyard outhouse, comfortable clothing, a variety of food that's safe to eat, medicine that our ancestors might understandably view as magic, and reasonable shelter from the elements.

Problems remain, of course, Some housing is substandard or unaffordable; some food and drugs are unsafe but profitable and available; too much clothing is made overseas by virtual slaves; energy for travel has a lot of unintended consequences for the planet; some interests seek greater profits by relaxing the laws protecting the water, air, land and wildlife with whom we share the world; and too many of us can't find decent work.

However, the Christian Science Monitor's "Progress Watch" feature finds that long-term advances are happening, especially in four areas globally: More women are being educated; violence and war are decreasing; democracies are increasing; and fewer are in poverty, worldwide.

So despite all the extremist blather that older adults are leaving a lousy place to the future, there's a foundation of reform and improvement to build on. Your generation - the Millennials, born between 1982 and 2003 - this year will make up one in four American adults.

Research from Frank Magid Associates shows that three-fourths of Millennials say that Wall Street and Big Business have too much power, that the financial industry should be punished for its role in the Great Recession and that taxes on the richest 1 percent of Americans should go up; two-thirds of Millennials support increased regulation of the financial sector and big banks; 80% of Millennials recognize that the gap between the rich and the rest of us is larger than ever. That's awesome.

So - like your relay track teams that went to the state finals year after year - it's time to take the baton (even if the hand-off is a bit clumsy) and run the next leg of the race.

And worry less about the finish line than the next generation waiting for your hand-off. After all, as it says about the End Times in the Gospel (in both Matthew and Mark), "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

You've got a lifetime!

Love,

Dad

Bill Knight is a freelance writer who teaches at Western Illinois University. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of WIU or Tri States Public Radio