Today I Cried

Today I cried. I’m crying because I’m angry. I’m angry that so many people I know and care about are scared. I know too many people who feel they are one of the future administration’s “target” populations than do not: non-whites, Muslims, women, LGBTs, poor, mentally ill, etc. In fact, I know few people who feel safe right now, and that makes my heart ache. When large swaths of people are scared for their lives and their livelihoods, is that not a form of terrorism? This doesn’t include all the articles that I’ve seen about children who are terrified that they or someone they know or love will be deported, or the articles about the hate speech and bullying that is happening since the election results—some of it in our own schools by our own children. People are saying, “make America great again.” If fear, bullying and hatred are the road to the greatness of our country—a country in which only a minuscule portion of our population has no immigrant lineage—I’m not only angry, I’m scared too. There was a time when my family was part of a new immigrant population.

I’ve always accepted the outcomes of elections. I’ve always believed that no matter who is in office, that’s with whom we work, and we do the best we can until the next election. I’m registered “decline to state,” so this isn’t about democrat or republican. I’ve always cast my vote in ways that I believe are in the best interest of all of us. But this is about people—our friends, family and neighbors feeling safe, and we will never be “great,” as long as our own people are afraid in the place they call home.

To all of you out there who are scared, know that I love you and you are not alone. There’s safety in numbers, and I’ll stand by you, hold your hand, hug you, listen to you, and if need be, I’ll be on the battle lines with you. I know many others will too. We live in California, a state that despite its imperfections is rich in diversity. And most of the people I know live in Sacramento—one of the nation’s most diverse and inclusive cities in the nation. I’ve never been more proud to be a Sacramentan.

An Open Letter to Millennials

Dear Millennials,

You’ve been on my mind lately—a lot. Maybe it’s because my child is one of you. Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending a lot of time with many of you. Nonetheless, I’ve been thinking a lot about you.

I get angry when I hear some of the stereotypes about your generation. I don’t envy your position. You’re inheriting one hell of a messy world, and I think it’s unfair for people to measure you against what earlier generations were doing at your age.

The world today is nothing like it was decades ago. I remember my best friend growing up. She married her high school sweetheart, and in 1987, when he was 25 and she was 21, they had four children, owned two houses and two cars. And they did all of this on only his income. She stayed home with the kids. (With four kids that close in age, you pretty much had to stay home, even if you didn’t want to, but she wanted to.) You’re probably wondering what her husband did to support a family of six on a single income. He must have been born into money, right? Nope. He started working at a factory part-time while he was in high school. When he graduated, he went to work at that same factory full time. Shortly after that, they bought a cheap fixer-upper and lived there for a year or two until they had enough equity and savings to buy a new home in a new development and kept the first house as a rental. That’s it. No magical family inheritance. No college degree after high school. No secret power moves. Just simple hard work and discipline. But, back then—30 years ago…now I’m really making myself sound old…that was the payoff you could expect from simple hard work. But, times have changed. Boy have they changed. That factory is now closed, so getting a job there isn’t an option for anyone, just in case you thought you might be able to follow in his footsteps. At that time, you could make a livable wage—enough to raise a family—with nothing more than a high school education. It wasn’t hard to get a job in one of the many factories in the area, and it was fairly simple to get a good, stable government job that would promise you a good pension and benefits.

That’s all changed. That same guy who raised a family straight out of high school eventually got a college degree, about 20 years later, and only so he could move up within that same company. When I was your age, if you had a high school diploma, you were okay. A four-year degree, and the world was pretty much completely open to you. Now you just about need a master’s degree to be remotely competitive, and on top of that, the cost of college has gotten ridiculous.

Community college was $5 a unit when I graduated high school. Yes, that’s correct. It’s not a typo. It was $5. Minimum wage was $3.35 at that time. Sure, minimum wage has tripled since then, but community college is now $46 per unit—more than nine times what it was when I graduated from high school. You are in a difficult situation. College really isn’t a choice for you to make a livable wage. It’s a necessity. Especially if you dream of ever owning a home and raising a family. That means that either your parents had to have saved a lot of money for you, or you are going to need a lot of grants or scholarships. If those didn’t work out for you, then you’re looking at big, fat student loans. So now you’re in the precarious situation of trying to find a job that will pay enough for you to pay your student loans while paying all the normal bills that come with “adulting.” Honestly, I don’t know how so many of you do it, and I understand why so many of you are still living with your parents. As if that’s not enough, you are facing a national housing crisis, so not only does the idea of buying a house seem like folklore, the simple act of finding a place to rent that you can afford presents further challenges for you. (I understand and share your fear and challenge of increasing rents and housing costs, but I’ll save the topic of housing and increasing rents for another post.)

I’m sorry you are in this tough situation. While I may not be solely responsible for the mess you are inheriting, I acknowledge that it was the decisions of my generation and the generations before that got us to where we are today. This is not to say that the generations before you haven’t done good things as well, because they have, but they haven’t been perfect, or you wouldn’t be facing the challenges before you.

My fault in all of this is that I’ve only been truly involved in my community for a little over a year. (I’ll also save that story for a later post.) I have to admit that most of my life, I was complacent to what was going on around me. I felt no reason to get involved. Either issues didn’t move me enough to do so, or I felt that I lacked the knowledge to speak on a topic, or I felt that my single voice didn’t make a difference. And more accurately, my life was fairly comfortable, so the necessity to get involved wasn’t there. Don’t make the same mistake I made. Your voice matters, and it matters more than you may realize.

The world we are in now is the world you are inheriting. At this moment, you share stewardship of the world with my generation and the generations before me. Your co-stewardship gives you a right to be a voice in how we shape the world, because one day, you will be the majority group making the decisions. One day one of you will even be president. Don’t wait until all of us old folks die to make your voice heard or to start tackling the issues. You’ve grown up in a different world, and you have a different perspective. Your generation now makes up the largest part of the population, and that alone gives you great power. So get involved now. Get your peers involved. Your generation should be reflected in our businesses, government, community organizations and everywhere else. So often when I’ve talked with many of you, I’ve not only been impressed with how intelligent and creative you are, but I’ve learned so much from you. You can make a huge difference.

One thing I’ve learned in my nearly 50 years of life is that there are many things that only time brings, including wisdom and experience. That’s not to say that you can’t have both when you are younger, but they become more refined as you become more “seasoned.” That’s why we need each other. You need us old folks to share our wisdom and experience with you, but we need your creativity and fresh perspective. We must both come to the table with an open mind that is respectful and desirous of solutions. Do not blindly follow us, and do not take a position of opposition simply out of frustration. But, do challenge us. Question us. Share your ideas with us. Let’s work together toward a better life for all of us, including your generation and all the generations that will come after you. And do not ever let anyone dismiss you because you “are too young to understand” or that you “weren’t here to know what it was like.” It is your youth that brings fresh perspectives. It is because you haven’t had the old ways engrained in you that can see things differently and offer new ideas. I need you, we need you and the future needs you. And, we need each other.

It’s a very different world today than it was when I was your age, and that means it’s time to do things differently. But please don’t take my word for it. Do your own research. Look at all sides of the issues. Talk to people of different backgrounds and professions. You may find it frustrating, because the more you learn, the more you’ll discover how complex most situations are, whether it’s the housing crisis, climate change, housing the homeless, social injustice or anything else. But I believe in you. You give me hope that we can create a better future for you, your children and your children’s children.

We're In This Together

I’ve spent a long time saying I was going to start writing, not about anything specific, but just writing (that is writing outside of my required work writing). Oh, I have tons of stories I’ve meant to tell—sweet, sad, silly, salacious? I’ve got ‘em. And, I could give a million reasons why I haven’t. But lately, I’ve felt an overwhelming urge to write, and what I’ve felt most compelled to write about are what I’ve learned, the people I’ve met and what I see people doing—mostly in my own neighborhood. I’m not sure how this going to go, but hopefully the journey is worth every moment of it. If you have something you’d like me to post, send me an email and we’ll discuss it. I love learning and hearing different perspectives, so let’s share our thoughts and learn together. Heck, maybe together we can find the solution to achieving world peace. Okay, it’s a long stretch, but I’ve never denied that I can be a dreamer and idealistic.