Are we living in tough times?  Are the challenges we face today above and beyond what they were in our parent’s time?  In our grandparent’s time?  Have the changes, the creations, the inventions of the past fifty years advanced us or are we sliding backwards?  Is it a plus that we can whisper something into our watch and send a message across the globe and get an answer back in seconds?  How did we ever live without being able to talk non-stop gibberish to our friends while we walk the aisles of Schnucks or Aldi?

I read a blog last night produced by Jeff Charlton of Graphic Connections Group in Chesterfield, my trusted producer, printer and marketing partner of my books.  Jeff took us through the life of a person born in 1900 and talked about the events in our world that took place while that person lived his life up to the age of seventy-five years old.  It was quite enlightening and tended to make me think we have it pretty good, regardless of how we may feel about the many tragic events taking place in our world.  It also made me feel that we have not changed much, we have not learned any lessons from yesterday and today’s history books.  We have luxuries our ancestors did not have but have these luxuries and many unimaginable creations and inventions led us to world peace, have they caused us to share our resources with our fellow man, have they kept us from killing each other and destroying entire countries over control of land, have they shown us a way to hold hands with our neighbors and live in harmony?

The person born in 1900 would have lived through World War 1, the Spanish Flu Epidemic, the Great Depression, World War II, the Holocaust, The Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and many other life challenges too trivial to mention when stacked up against the wars and inhumanity of that time.  That person, by the time they reach the age of 75, would have witnessed over 150 million of their neighbors lose their life due to war and sickness in our land.  Wow, that is hard to imagine or is it?

I was trying to reconcile all this with where we are in our quest for equality for all people, for diversity, equity, and inclusion in our industry.  It was 1964 when Lyndon Johnson signed the civil rights act and between Johnson and Kennedy, our country was finally bold enough and brave enough to put some laws on the books that promised equal rights and justice for all.  I was fresh out of high school and even fresher out of basic and advanced infantry training in the US Army National Guard.  DEI was not even a phrase then nor was equality for all mankind high on my priority list–I had college awaiting me, beer busts to attend, a world to explore.  Are we further along with DEI than we were in 1964?  Did that history making bill of human rights vault us into the type of improvement to our society that so many hoped and dreamed for?  Would Dr. King be happy with our progress towards realizing his dream?  Did that person born in 1900 as talked about above, upon reaching the age of seventy-five, sit in a rocker chair on their porch and look out at the hills and valleys of our land and say, “wow, we have come a long way in our desire to have equality for all people.”

I read the rather non-descriptive article in the Post Dispatch on Friday, regarding our MWBE participation program in our city and my first thought was happiness and relief that we have addressed this pausing issue so quickly.  I saw all my friends in the video that was posted on LinkedIn and thought, hey, if they pleased all those guys and gals, this revised restarting program is golden.  If they are happy, I am happy.  My second thought, which came way too quickly, is that unless there is a page two or page three of this program, we are all dreaming and hoping that this minor change will please our current leaders and will solve the issues before us.  I fear next week’s articles but for now I will bury my head in happiness that all is good….and hope that there is indeed a second and third page that will satisfy all those that need satisfying.

Sometimes I marvel at the priorities of our society.  We can sit in a self-driving taxi, alter a voice and a photo to fool others, ask our phones to make calls for us, whisper love poems to our computer and receive a more acceptable version back in seconds, but we have yet to figure out how to accept, understand, and simply get along with our fellow man.  We kill people by the thousands in wars that make no sense, we watch a holocaust take place right before our eyes, maybe a couple of them, and we seem to want to inflict more force and mix more guns into our everyday life.  Is this what our forefathers fought and died for?  I wonder what that person that was born in 1900 would think if he or she was alive today.

Jeff’s article was titled “And We Think We Have It Tough…”  I am not sure I feel that way.  I feel quite blessed but in the future, when I am feeling a bit discombobulated or discouraged and questioning the ways of our world, I will think of my grandma, who was born in 1894, and I will think of her nine sons, my uncles, who all served in a war or two, and I will be forever grateful for the foundation that they laid down at my doorstep.  With those thoughts in mind, I will continue my search for a just and equal world.

Have a great week everyone.  As we wait in line at our favorite Starbucks or fight traffic on 270 or 64 or wrestle through the many challenges of our work day, let us all remember Jeff’s words above that “no matter how hard things seem today, we stand on the shoulders of giants–those who survived the unimaginable and taught us that there is always hope.”

WBEDC

Ron