From West by Northwest.org Voices of the Northwest Sadler's Sense: A Squandered Legacy? By Russell Sadler Sep 29, 2006 I was brought up to believe, like many of you readers, that we had a moral obligation to leave our corner of the world better off than we found it. In recent years, I am haunted by the notion that our present governing generation -- a majority of self-styled “conservatives” -- may be the first in modern American history to fail to meet this obligation. There are many signs that the legacy of the governing generation will be a world worse off. It is not limited to the bungled Iraq War and the consequences of a destabilized Middle East, the corrupt looting of the public treasury by rampant cronyism, the incompetence that led to the slow drowning of a great American city, live on on CNN, or the shameless promotion of legislation legalizing torture after the fact. These are symptoms of a larger ill. The fundamental problem with the governing generation that dominates the Republican Party is a lack of respect for the public patrimony created by the work and wealth of the generations that came before us. This lack of respect is displayed at every level of government. From the Bush regime’s squandering of our reputation in the world....to cynical congressional efforts to destroy Social Security....to the public’s unwillingness to pay to maintain public infrastructure like streets, roads, highways and sewers....to the neglect of national, state and local parks....to the refusal of state governments to adequately finance public colleges and universities, the governing generation is ungratefully turning its back on the legacy built by previous generations. This is not one of those gratuitous criticisms of the “Baby Boomer Generation” so much in fashion these days. Many boomers are as astonished and angry at the lack of respect for the public patrimony as anyone else. The source of this lack of respect for the public realm is very specific. It is the self-absorbed narcissism of the “selfish is good” philosophy of Ayn Rand and her ideological acolytes combined with the Libertarian libel that there is no such thing as the “common good.” The only legitimate interest is self-interest, and taxation to support the “common good” is theft. It is the guiding philosophy of the self-styled conservatives that dominate the governing generation. This ideology denies the fundamental reason that societies organize communities in the first place -- to respond to needs people cannot meet individually. Our present patrimony was created largely by those retired NBC anchor Tom Brokaw called “The Greatest Generation.” This was the generation that lived through the Great Depression or was raised in its shadow. They created Social Security, the single most successful program in the history of public government. They fought and won World War II. They generously rebuilt Europe and Japan. They passed the GI Bill offering a college education to those who interrupted their lives to serve their country. This generation understood the “common good” because they had been deprived of it for nearly two decades. From 1927, when American agriculture went into depression, until 1946 when the war ended, this generation endured the privation of the Depression and the rationing and wage and price controls of the war. They passed legislation intended to assure that would not happen to any future generation. In the name of “conservative reform” most of those safeguards have been repealed or dismantled. They no longer exist. Nowhere is this destruction of the public patrimony more flagrant than in the systematic, deliberate destruction of public higher education. When I attended the University of Oregon in the mid-1960s, my undergraduate tuition of about $1,000 for the school year reflected 25 percent of the per-student operating cost. Taxpayers paid the remaining 75 percent which they have seen returned in the form of higher income taxes I have paid over the last 40 years. Today, undergraduate tuition starts around $5,800 and reflects 75 percent of the per-student operating cost. Taxpayers are putting up only about 25 percent. And students are being encouraged to borrow the money to pay their bills. Students are graduating with an average debt between $18, 000 - $23,000, mired in debt before they even start their lives. We have destroyed the engine that was a major underpinning of the prosperity the self-styled conservatives enjoyed but will not grant to the next generation. It is ingratitude of criminal proportions. I spent the last week aboard a 30 foot trawler in the State of Washington’s magnificent San Juan Islands. The friends included a single mother and her 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old daughter. As I watched the three of them quietly sleeping in the forward berth after warm, sun-drenched days of whale watching and exploring in the islands, I thought about the intractable problems we are dumping on these innocents and the silent tears just flowed from my eyes. Dear God, what will they think of us when they find out what we’ve done? Kids, this column’s for you.. Copyright ©2006 by Russell Sadler Russell Sadler is a journalist and a lecturer at Southern Oregon University. You may write him c/o publisher at westbynorthwest.org. Visit Sadler's Sense columns at West By Northwest.org: Sadler's Sense: A Snapshot of Electorial Politics and Power in Oregon Sadler's Sense: Sea Change Sadler's Sense: Ben Westlund's Bid for Governor and Why He Makes Sense Sadler's Sense: Croesus and Responsibility Sadler's Sense: Can We Kick the "Kicker" Habit? Or... the Big Lie Sadler's Sense: Enter Starret Stage Right -- Now a Four Way Race for Governor and Freeway Nation or Free Nation? 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