Community Voices: Nostalgic for days gone by

Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2012 12:00 pm | Updated: 11:14 am, Fri May 25, 2012.

I become nostalgic about certain periods of my life. This is common in my generation and in pretty much all generations at some point.

I am working on my seventh decade, which has me looking back to some very eventful years in our world. In my life, there have been four major conflicts that have taken at least four different generations to foreign lands to fight. We never truly won any of those conflicts and I have no desire to go back to any of those days.

There have been 10 recessions during my lifetime. While some of them were short lived (one year), all of them injured the working class in this nation. However, the current Great Recession is the longest since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

When I was growing up years ago and working for 90 cents an hour, I was oblivious to most of the economic problems of the ?50s and ?60s, and some portions of the ?70s and ?80s. Since taking on the duties of becoming a husband and a father, I have experienced the full force of the downturns of the ?90s, 2000s and 2010s. Granted, I have enjoyed some prosperous days; however, I am not sure that I want to experience the pain of a recession so that I can enjoy the fleeting feeling of elation associated with prosperous days.

There have been 12 presidents since I was born; six democrats and six republicans. During that time we have had three crises in office. One president was assassinated, one resigned due to scandal and one went through an impeachment process. I wish I could forget how distressing these very visible national events were to me and to our nation as a whole. I definitely would not want to go back to those days.

But here is a short list of the things for which I am nostalgic:

1. A day when corporations were not citizens

2. A day when the next generation was considered in fiscal policy

3. A day when our national reputation was less soiled

4. A day when debt was not the basis for our national prosperity

5. A day when compromise was not considered to be a four letter word

6. A day when we were unified to do great things like in the cases of the space race and development of a national highway system

7. A day when our leaders could really lead

8. A day of great vision ? maybe just living out the vision of our nation?s founders: the land of the free and the home of the brave

In the end, I want to help create a better day for my children and grandchildren. I am looking for women and men of vision and courage, and I plan to follow them.

Tim Gillette is one of several people in the Savage community who write for Community Voices ? a column appearing weekly in the opinion and commentary section of this newspaper.

Posted in News, Opinions, Columnists on Saturday, May 26, 2012 12:00 pm. Updated: 11:14 am.

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