Thursday, August 11, 2016

First Paragraph

Once you get far enough along in life, you're likely to be struck by the distance between the views in front of you and the ones you can still dimly make out in your rearview mirror. I turn 65 this year. The America of my childhood - with its expanding middle class, secure jobs, intact nuclear families, devout believers, distinct gender roles, polite politics, consensus-building media - is nothing like the country my year-old granddaughter will inherit. Our political, social, and religious institutions are weaker, our middle class smaller, our cultural norms looser, our public debate coarser, our technologies faster, our immigrant-woven tapestry richer, and our racial, ethnic, religious, and gender identities more ambiguous. As a society, we've become more polarized and more tolerant - and no matter what we're like today, we're going to be different tomorrow. Change is the constant. 

- From The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown by Paul Taylor and The Pew Research Center

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