Congratulation to all Graduates! Welcome to the next stage in your life. Its gonna be amazing! A Little About Class of 2014: Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall’s entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat. For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead. Few in the class know how to write in cursive. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail. Al Gore has always been animated. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities. Entering college this fall in a country where a quarter of young people under 18 have at least one immigrant parent, they arent afraid of immigration...unless it involves real aliens from another planet. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause. Trading Chocolate the Moose for Patti the Platypus helped build their Beanie Baby collection. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed. Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day. “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows. Czechoslovakia has never existed. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen. Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall. Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones. American companies have always done business in Vietnam. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station. Children have always been trying to divorce their parents. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties. Beethoven has always been a good name for a dog. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 15:20:47 +0000
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